Re: Sodium Palladium Chloride for toner

Joe,

First, Happy Thanksgiving to you as well, and to all who read this.

I don't use any of the toners you mention so don't have a clue as to
what might be going on. However, I have always found toning with gold
to be much more tricky than with palladium or platinum. And I have
never been able to figure out why. There have been times when it work
work perfectly and give a beautiful rich print with a bluish black
color, but other times the toning would stain the paper a nasty
purple/pink color. Plus, the stock solutions don't last as long
either. I am sure there is a solution for this but in the end I like
the warmer tones I get from palladium toning and I have several
hundred grams of palladium chloride to use up so that is what I use.

Look forward to hearing the results of your new tests.

Best,

Sandy

>Sandy,
>
>I assume your comments here on bleaching and selenium are partly
>influenced by the VDB toning discussion going on over at APUG. As a
>result of those conversations, yesterday I started running some tests
>with Polytoner and gold toner. However, since I was at work at the
>time, students distracted me in the middle of the test and I ended up
>inadvertantly toning with Clerc's Gold Toner and also Polytoner before
>fixing.
>
>What I observed was that the Polytoner 1+4 fogged the VDB and that there
>was some bleaching with the gold toner that I had never noted before
>when I tone after fixing. The resultant color of the gold-toned print
>was almost purple rather than a purplish-brown. (Could be that added
>efficiency you speak to but I should also mention that I kicked the
>toner up a notch with additional gold chloride since a student had
>previously reported the toner was exhausting and taking a long time to
>work. I didn't mix fresh toner nor test it before I pumped it up
>because school was closing early for the Thanksgiving holiday and I had
>a limited time to test this stuff.) When I return to work Monday I plan
>to mix fresh toning chemistry and run several tests including the
>effects of Polytoner at different dilutions, KRST at 1+500 as suggested
>over at apug.org, and Clerc's toner mixed fresh. I'll do the tests
>against a control untreated VDB and also test the effects of the
>previous when applied before and after fixing.
>
>FWIW, I'm using Cranes Kid Finish ecru and I adopted your suggestion of
>an initial citric acid bath with VDB about a year ago. I'm using a 2%
>citric solution followed by a 3 minute wash, fixing in two successive 2%
>sodium thiosulfate baths for 1.5 minutes each, washing prints for 5
>minutes then toning by inspection followed by hypo clearing agent for 3
>minutes and a 30 minute wash. Since adopting the initial citric acid
>bath, I see very little change in density throughout any of the wet
>steps although the prints do dry down a bit. If anything, I'd say the
>prints actually gain a bit of density when immersed in the thiosufate.
>I'll actually keep notes on the shifts for a change next week.
>
>Thanns for the info and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
>
>Joe
>___
>
>>>> sanking@clemson.edu 11/24/05 10:32 AM >>>
>Joe,
>
>If you tone before fixing the the action is faster and and more
>efficient. Also, toning before fixing almost entirely eliminates
>bleaching of the print during fixing.
>
>Just make sure you give the print a good wash in pH neutral or
>alightly acidic water before toning.
>
>And don't even think about toning with any selenium toner before
>fixing. If you do there will most likely be staining.
>
>Sandy
>
>
>
>
>
>> >>> sanking@clemson.edu 11/24/05 9:19 AM >>>
>>>>...Just remember, when toining with gold, palladium or platinum tone
>>vandykes *before* fixing.<<
>>
>>
>>Sandy,
>>
>>Why do you recommend toning with these before rather than after fixing?
>>
>>Joe
Received on Thu Nov 24 11:08:00 2005