Re: mordancage

["Christina Z. Anderson" <zphoto@montana.net>]

Well guys,
     I mordancaged all day, so much so that my hands are stiff...funny.  OH,
no--it's probably because it happens to be SNOWING here on what should be a
summer day.  The beauty of the mountains...
     Today I tested ILford matt and gloss fiber, Agfa MCC 118, and Forte RC
and fiber warmtone.  Some were prints I just printed, and the rest were old
prints from a couple years back.  The old ones were hardened in fix with
hardener.
     What I found (Nate, this will apply to some stuff I emailed you off
list) was that the hardened prints mordancaged just great, so that is not a
problem to use hardened prints.  It is also not a problem to use old prints
(not fresh ones) and matt and glossy, fiber and RC are all just fine.  Nate,
I was able to get *17* (!) 11x14's out of 3 1/3 cups of stuff!  Some I had
to leave in longer than others, some I had to mordancage, redevelop,
mordancage again and then redevelop to get the emulsion to lift.  Some
mordancaged in 3 minutes, some I left in up to 15.  I had a couple prints
that never did disintegrate and I have no idea why.  What I did when I felt
the soup was getting low is I added some more acetic acid and some more
hydrogen peroxide, so that may be why it worked so long.  I did not have any
more solution mixed up so I just took a chance with this and it worked.  Try
it.
    Cor, as far as the yellowing of the highlights--yes, on RC it doesn't
happen, on fiber it does.  However, I was able to rub off a lot of the stain
in the total lift off areas down to paper base white.  I also found that if
I redeveloped, rinsed, and then returned the print to the fixer, that color
would disappear somewhat and get colder for sure.  It is as if the
mordancage solution makes the paper sensitive like a POP paper, you know?
And when you put the POP paper in fix it immediately lightens?  That is what
happens.  IF you do this, rinse your print thoroughly because the combo of
chemicals with the fix smells really horrible and gases a bit and makes me
puke (figuratively).
     I think the article in Shutterbug a while back said don't use fiber
paper because the highlights don't etch. The highlights on fiber paper
really don't budge at all, so I always have a positive image when I am done,
except where there are shadows.  On RC you can wipe too hard and take all
the image off it seems.  Hence it is more possible to do the negative image
with RC (plus whiter whites).
     Also, I did the Hicks/Schultz method of 1. developing, 2. not fixing,
3. mordancage, and then 4. rubbing off in room light before redeveloping and
fixing finally and it does produce a sabattier/reversed image.  Good idea to
experiment with.  I have not yet tried the Coote method of this along with
reexposing the print not to room light but to another negative under the
enlarger.  So many methods, so little time...
Chris