Re: argyrotype help please

Hi

The sensitiser formula you are using is text book. Your problem is
undoubtedly the size!! Try platinotype without the size or another
paper.

The Argyrotype system may just as well have been designed to test the
purity of a paper! That is, it's extremely fussy and only work with
the purest of papers that have not been adulterated with carbonate
buffer, fillers and the like. See Dr Mike Ware's web pages for further
details.

Cheers ... Tony McLean

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tony.mclean
On 7 Jan 2004, at 21:25, epona wrote:

> This may be applicable to other iron silver processes as well.
>
> I have never been able to get the Dmax I want out of this process, tho
> my last batch was not too bad. This batch, however, is horrendous. I
> am getting flat prints with a weird silvery sheen over the surface,
> most noticeably in the darker areas, because, well, they are dark. I
> made new sensitizer in case it was old, and the extra silver salts
> were hanging out and depositing on the paper, which is Crane's 90 lb
> cover stock (aka platinotype). The formula is:
>
> Sulphamic acid (spelt 'sulfamic' in the USA) NH2SO3H .....7 g
> Silver(I) Oxide Ag2O
> ............................................................7 g
> Ammonium Iron(III) Citrate (the green form) ....................22 g
> Tween 20
> .......................................................................
> .........0.2 cc
> Distilled water to make
> ......................................................100 cc
>
> Still getting the silvery sheen, whether I tone in gold chloride or
> just fix in sodium thio. Then i made the (duh) connection that the
> bad prints started to happened coincidentally when I began using
> crane's sized with Dick Stevens' sizing formula, which is this:
>
> gelatin 7g
> distilled water 500 ml
> alum 1g
> alcohol absolute 25 ml
>
> do you think it's the sizing causing this weird sheen? i have sized
> my paper previously with a .2% gelatin solution minus the alum and
> alcohol. could it be those additives? should i trash this whole idea
> and just try sandy's kallitype formula? I got a deadline i'm trying
> to meet for a finished piece for next thursday.
>
> thanks in advance,
> christine
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~
> "Crazy" is a term of art: "Insane" is a term of Law. Remember that,
> and you will save yourself a lot of trouble.
> ~ Hunter S. Thompson
>
Received on Wed Jan 7 15:40:25 2004