U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Coffee bean grinder + Chris's prints & blather

Re: Coffee bean grinder + Chris's prints & blather



Different Eric here but I got a good price for silver nitrate a while back from saltlakemetals.com.  I looked at one of my bottles to get you that name and I may need a coffee grinder too. =\

Glycin will turn bad pretty quick once opened even in a dry state.  I think claims of a red tone from that dev are inaccurate but on some papers no longer made, it might have done that.  That formula looks similar to Ansco 130.  Warm tones can be better achieved with Ansco 115.  Higher dilutions make it warmer BUT I used it with some Oriental Warmtone paper and was underwhelmed by it's lack or warmth from what I was used to with Forte, (sniff, I miss Forte paper).



On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:46 PM, Jack Fulton <jefulton1@comcast.net> wrote:
Eric and company:  What do you know about the keeping qualities of chemicals in general when they're bought in bulk but not used right away? I recently, for instance, threw out a large hunk of ferric ammonium citrate because it had turned into just that -- a really hard, solid hunk.
I'd think, Judy, you could buy a cheap coffee bean grinder and whirl that stuff to death to make it usable. Outside of course. Just a thought.

While on that, Does the old link to Engelhard (bought out in '06) in Alabama still work to purchase the least expensive silver nitrate?

Now there's talk of, for instance, 60 pound supply of whatever -- would you use, say a pound a month?  That could still be 5 years...  On the one hand, I'm using an old supply of ammonium dichromate, maybe 30 or 50 years old, and it seems fine... but on the other, there was that FAC.  Is there any general info on the topic ?  Is it reliable ?

Some Ferric Ammonium Citrate has hardened on me before and I just smashed it up and it worked fine as it is quite soluble. An odd fact in Wikipedi-ing it was to find it is used in a Scottish soft drink, Im-Bru @ a .002% amount. No wonder we so enjoy the plaid and bagpipes.

Other chemicals I've used have gone off or bad such as Metol (from age and oxidation), Pot. Bromide (age . . but parts still usable) and Glycin.

While on the aspect of Glycin, Iv'e tried a great number of times to use it in a developer formula to print for it is supposed to give a red tone to one's print. It's an old
Kodak formula:
H2O             750 mls
Sod Sulfite     25 grams
Glycin          4         "
Sod Carb        30.4 "
Pot Brom        1       "
to make 1 liter
Dilute 1:2 w/water

Exposures must be adjusted and color is determined by length of development.

Have any of you ever tried this? My luck is nil . . . but my thoughts have led to the idea that perhaps an immensely long exposure
is necessary.

And, finally, looking @ Chris' new messy, moldy, brush strokey pix, the ones appealing to me is the 1st Father Daughter image for it reminds me
of Louis Duco Du Hauron's image of the city of Agen, virtually the world's first color outdoor image, which employed virtually the same basic
premise as tri-color gum
And that last photo, the hand-colored Mordancage, "After Richter" w/that blue vein. Both are quite interesting to view again.

What'm I doin here . . . writing a blog? But hope some answers come to the multiple questions or POV's.

Jack F