Re: Hardening with glyoxal

Hi Don,
     I'm back in the South :) and am I happy. Warm again. Since I had to
unsubscribe one email address and resubscribe another in my move, I missed
some days of the list and don't know if this question has been answered, but
my experience will apply indirectly to your question.
     When I went into my "dark"room here, from which I have been absent 3
months, I noticed two sheets of paper, one severely yellow. I mean, as
yellow as that stucco color you see all over in Italy, or Italian
restaurants. I was totally blown away, thinking it was a sheet of
glutaraldehyde sized paper. However, when I pulled it out, there was also a
Lenox sheet that was normal white, that had been sized, too, and I realize
that the Lenox was sized with glut for sure, and the yellowed paper if I'm
not mistaken was sized with glyoxal. That piece was aquarelle (it had
spots, so I was only keeping it for demo purposes). So, whatever you do
with glyoxal, make sure you size just enough that you will use shortly,
don't store it.
      I wonder if the yellowing problem is due to paper choice. Leading
back to what Judy said a while back that an alkaline substance made her
glyoxal turn orange, it may be paper choice. I'm also wondering if my water
supply is alkaline enough here that this is what caused it, but whatever the
cause, I would use glyoxal very carefully. I mix 25 ml of 40% into 1000 ml
of 3% gelatin--this does lots of paper, btw, more than you can hang at one
time. I brushed it on, I do not rinse after, as Judy does, I throw excess
away because it is mixed in with the gelatin. 500 ml of glyoxal 40% will
last you through 20 sizings of easily 50 16x20 sheets each time, so, in
essence, years.
     I did not use distilled water in my gelatin mix, so this might
exacerbate the problem if my water is alkaline. Whatever the case, the
paper did get very much yellower over the last three months, and it wasn't
yellow before I left. In deference to glyoxal, I have had problems with
aquarelle paper in general and will not use it again. I even went against
my word this summer, bought a couple pieces, and AGAIN had problems with the
paper, different batch, different store, same odd spots, weird sizing marks
after a good soak, stain here and there, YUK.
     Would you do me a favor?? Cut a piece of glyoxal sized paper off, and
just keep it untouched for several months and see if you have this
experience. I am going to order some more glyoxal and test some
myself...maybe like leave a piece out in the sun a couple days and see if
that contributes, etc. etc., but the yellowing is enough for me to seriously
question why I would ever use it again, even if taking precautionary
measures of rinsing after hardening, and using up paper right away, and
avoiding aquarelle.
     I'm gonna bring a piece of these papers to show Sam tomorrow at school
so he can be my witness :)
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Bryant" <dstevenbryant@mindspring.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2004 3:16 PM
Subject: RE: Hardening with glyoxal

> Martin,
>
> > I wouldn't think the risk is worth the expense. The stuff is pretty
> > cheap.
> > VWR lists it at less than $50.00 for 2 liters.
> >
> > How much is your time and other materials worth? This kind of reminds
me
> > of
> > ruining prints as a byproduct of saving on fixer.
>
> Perhaps I should rephrase my question. What is the capacity of 1 liter of
a
> 1% solution of glyoxal used to harden gelatinized paper? Assuming that the
> paper size for each sheet is 11x14 inches how many sheets could be
hardened?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Don Bryant
>
>
>
>
Received on Sun Aug 15 20:48:58 2004