[alt-photo] Sodium Citrate Developer

[Don Bryant]

Loris,

>
Ok, that means you need excess citric acid. Alkaline developer isn't a
good idea for kallitype and/or pt/pd right?

Francis, you'll need to add more citric acid (or less carbonate /
bicarbonate) than what I've wrote before; those formulas were
carefully balanced, giving (almost pure) sodium citrate as the
result...
>

The formula and procedure I offered is straight out of Sullivan & Weese's
New Platinum Print.

It should work fine it's slightly acidic which is what I strive for ~ pH
about 6 - 7. Since I measure with pH papers I can't tell you exactly what my
pH is but as long as it is between 6 & 7 you are good to go. Works fine for
me for palladium and kallitype printing.

There is a lot of wiggle room on the final developer concentration. One
could probably diluter the final mix by 30 to 50 % with water after pH
balancing and get by fine, although one needs to experiment with their
expectation and chemicals.

One can also use that general formula to make say ammonium citrate. 

As I said it doesn't need to be extremely precise to work effectively and
repeatedly but good technique never hurts and helps eliminate issues over
the long haul.

In years past I have mixed very weak solutions of Potassium Oxalate out of
necessity due to unexpected chemical shortages and a need to print. I will
work fine for a while.

Don