Re: platinum/gold toning
Peter Marshall (petermarshall@cix.compulink.co.uk)
Wed, 30 Jul 97 20:47 BST-1
In-Reply-To: <3df6e1d0@awl.co.uk>
>
> - I was just reading Peter Marshall's note about platinum toning, and I
> wondered if anyone had a good simple recipe for platinum toner - is it
> Borax +
> hot water + platinum, like the Gold Chloride recipe?
>
> - In fact I wasn't that impressed with the results I got with my own
> home-made
> Gold Chloride + Borax toner, and I've gone back to using the Tetenal
> Gold toner.
> The gold + borax toned prints looked rather flat and muddy, whereas
> when I've
> used the Tetanal toner I got a really beautiful 'plum' colour.
> I expect someone will now tell me that the Tetenal stuff is just the
> same, but
> it comes in a black bottle with a proper label on it!
> This is the first time I've tried making my own gold toner - maybe if
> I vary
> the times more I'll get better results. Has anyone else had any similar
> experiences?
>
> Chris Fox
>
>
The normal platinum salt used for printing was often used in a fairly
dilute solution (eg 1g to 500ml) acidified with sulphuric or phosphoric
acid. You keep using it until it no longer works.
You will find a number of formulae in the old books (also some using two
solutions, one the platinum compound, the other an alum/salt mixture.)
I'm not sure if any of these give greatly different results, though
probably not - I can't recall at the moment which formula I used myself.
I got quite nice results using the Tetenal toner with both salt prints and
kallitypes by the way. I was fortunate enough to get a small batch of it
as 'bankrupt stock', which worked out cheaper than making my own.
Peter Marshall
On Fixing Shadows and elsewhere:
http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~ds8s/
Family Pictures, German Indications, London demonstrations &
The Buildings of London etc: http://www.spelthorne.ac.uk/pm/