Re: lith printing formula

From: "Christina Z. Anderson" <zphoto@montana.net>
Subject: lith printing formula
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:22:11 -0600

> My question is this: on this list someone suggested to replace the
> paraformaldehyde with acetone, in the ratio of 2.2ml acetone for
> each gram of formaldehyde, thus 82.5ml acetone for the 37.5g
> paraformaldehyde--it was Ryuji who said this if I am not mistaken.

I'm pretty sure that was Michael Gudzinowicz on usenet
rec.photo.darkroom, or old pure-silver on tundraware. I can see the
idea behind it but I am uncertain of whether it provides desired
functionality in the developer solution.

The idea is that formaldehyde and sulfite forms a "buffer" system to
maintain a rather constant amount of free sulfite in the developer
bath. If the sulfite is too little, the developer goes off very
quickly. If there is too much, lith development will not occur. I
think Mike Gudzinowicz suggested this substituion as a way to avoid
potentially hazardous formaldehyde in darkroom.

> This developer has been wonderful for me, but I also found this year
> that the Fotospeed Lith developer did great for a bunch of students,
> so I am inclined to not mix my own lith developer anymore but just
> use the commercial brands. It was the first semester of teaching
> experimental that I did NOT mix up my own lith developer, and,
> frankly, it is a pain....

I don't use Fotospeed Lith developer, but my local lith printer friend
didn't have a good experience with it... I guess if it works for you,
why not use it? (Artists don't get credit for mixing chemicals!)

If this is for your own experimentation, and if you are concerned
about proprietary formula, I'd rather use formaldehyde. Aceton
substitution is a potentially big time sink to make it work, and
aceton is just as nasty as formaldehyde if ventilation is inadequate
anyway. (Note: once mixed with sulfite, formaldehyde is rather tightly
bound to sulfite and the developer is not as irritating as the bare
formaldehyde.)

As another experimental approach, I suggest you take a look at
"burning lith developer" I posted on pure-silver (on tundraware) on 2
Jan 2003. This developer avoids volatile agent altogether but also
lacks sulfite buffer system, so you should add a small amount of
sulfite from time to time, or replace the bath every few prints.

From: Ryuji Suzuki -- JF7WEX <RSuzuki@MIT.EDU>
Subject: [pure-silver]: Burning Lithprint developer
Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2003 04:36:43 -0500 (EST)

[...]
> Experimental burning lithprint developer
>
> hydroquinone 3.0g
> sodium sulfite 3.0g
> potassium bromide 2.0g
> trisodium phosphate 10g
> target pH about 11 (plus or minus 0.2 units)
>
> (trisodium phosphate is dodecahydrate.)
>
> This solution is "hot" when mixed, or after one test strip
> session. Mix this with water of room temperature, no higher than 25C
> because you don't want to wait to cool down.
>
> With AGFA Multicontrast papers (MCP/MCC) I get *very* lithy prints in
> 10 to 15 minutes. This is more lithy than what I got with Kodak Lith
> (A/B) for 30 minutes.
>
> When the solution is mixed fresh, the bath is very faint yellow. As I
> developed, agitated and waited, the solution becomes very dark in a
> matter of a couple of hours. I could make three test prints of 8x10
> and three final prints of 11x14 out of it. At the last print, the
> solution is dark brown and I couldn't see the image very well unless I
> tilted the tray. This last print came out with white border tanned,
> but I managed to wash this off in sulfite hypo clear bath. At this
> point, the developer was otherwise working fine, and this last print
> was clearly lithy.
>
> The image tone is a bit lighter and yellowish than Kodak Lith
> developer. The lightest print had to be soaked in weak selenium toner
> to darken up to my taste.
>
> So, this is not quite one-shot, but something close. I could probably
> add a pinch of sulfite after each print to prolong the life of the
> bath, and control the wildness of infectious development.
>
> Typically, lith developers use sulfite and formaldehyde or something
> similar to make sulfite incapable to react with hydroquinone to form
> hydroquinone monosulfonate. The result of skipping this one was a
> rapid working lithprint developer with very short life.
>
> Experiment will continue...
>
> --
> Ryuji Suzuki
> "Don't play what's there, play what's not there." (Miles Davis)
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Received on 06/21/06-07:27:19 PM Z