RE: Another kallitype note

[Liam Lawless <liam.lawless@blueyonder.co.uk>]

Sandy,

Sounds like it may be a problem with your water - one which, apparently,
only strikes in some locations.  Terry King started experiencing it on salt
prints one day a few years ago (& has had it ever since) & I've always had
it with the water here: what usually happens is that silver print-outs
develop brown to greenish-grey general staining during the final wash, but
in severe cases it can occur as soon as prints hit the first wash... or so
Terry said.  Toning makes no difference, apart from modifying the stain
colour.

The cure (if this is your complaint) is to give the FIRST wash in pure
water.  Boiled and cooled water works just as well.  Huge volumes are not
required: for a 20X24 I'd suggest three or four changes of 1 litre each,
allowing about 3 minutes each (with agitation).  After that, continue
washing with tap water if you feel more washing is needed.  (Note that
boiled water will become cloudy as the silver nitrate washes out, but that's
not a problem; distilled/deionised, etc. remains clear.)

My best guess is that water containing enough dissolved oxygen forms some
silver oxide with the residual silver nitrate, and one of the things boiling
does is drive off dissolved O.  Why the staining doesn't usually appear
until during the final wash, I've no idea.



Liam

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy King [mailto:sanking@clemson.edu]
Sent: 19 May 2002 20:01
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Another kallitype note



Some time back someone on the list, Shannon I believe, had a question
about fogging of the paper when developing either kallitype or
vandyke in daylight. This had not previously happened with me but for
some reason it now has. This past weekend I made a large vandyke from
a 20X24 negative, and processes it as I normally do: 2 minute wash, 5
minutes in platinum toner, 2 minutes in 5% sodium thiosulfate fixer,
2 minutes in 1% sodium sulfite, then wash in running water on deck in
afternoon shade. After about 15 minutes the print developed a very
noticeable stain, or fog. The stain reached a certain point, which I
have subsequently measured as about log 0.03, and did not progress
any further. I am really mystified by this and have no idea as to the
cause.

Comments anyone?

Sandy King


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