I have tried Tri-X sheet film with success. I fixed out the silver first
and then gave the film a 3 minute soak in a 4% Ammonium Dichromate
solution. After soaking I gave it a gentle squeegee and hung it up to
dry in a heated cabinet. Once dry I exposed the collotype matrix-to-be
for 15 minutes with a neg that usually takes 30 minutes with palladium
in the same light source(15wUVflurescent).
A faint image appeared before development. I developed the plate in
running tap water for about 10-15 minutes.
I don't have very much experience with printmaking so I showed my
results to some more experinced printmakers. From what I was told the
plate produced by these means is quite printable. Once I get the ink a
bit stiffer and get access to a better press than I was using.
Since these first initial experiments I have procured the Kent KIrby
book "Studio Collotype". I am still reading it and have not really had
the time to delve into this again.
I hit upon the idea of using TriX in a phone conversation I had with a
guy named Ed Fausty. He was calling palladio looking for info onm
duplicating films. It came out that he did colltype so I picked his
brain a little. He had never tried to make a collotype on a glass plate
as is mentioned in KOTL. He just used sheet film.
I thought that it might work quite well on TriX because it is one of
those thicker emulsion type films. The Kirby text does mention using
film as a matrix but does not mention TriX. Hope this helps.
Salvatore Mancini