RE: argyrotype help please

I use cranes 90 lb with Argyro too, but I've never sized. Didn't felt
it was needed. You could try the extra boost of sulfamic acid that
Ware suggests for contrast. Also, there is a product at Home Depot in
the tile section call Tile Cleaner that is 100% sulfamic acid. Used
for students and it seemed just fine... at $7.00 a lb it's cheap too.
On the cheap trail, many of my students also tried off the shelf
Crane's 100% cotton stationery and it was very nice.

Also, what's you light source?

-Darryl

-----Original Message-----
From: epona [mailto:acolyta@napc.com]
Sent: Wed 1/7/2004 4:25 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Cc: epona
Subject: argyrotype help please
 
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