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darkclassical
12th August 2009, 02:53 AM
After many months away from safelight in the darkroom. I'm pleased to say that I'm able to print once again with little side effects so far. This comes after considerable hours researching ways to the "healthiest" chemistry possible.

I'm saying "so far" because I remain very cautious and careful after all of my physical allergies/reactions last fall; therefore, my current tests are spread out over many days and short - one variable at a time.

Printing with XTOL? Why? It is the least toxic developer that's readily available. I'm just going to pretend that it is not a film developer. :-) Development times are 2-3 times that of the norm with a 1+1 mix, but I really don't mind waiting 3 or 4 minutes! I have not tried stock XTOL yet. I'll save that for future FB paper tests. I will also try Silvergrain's Tektol print developer because the MSDS looks even better than XTOL. Yes, I do feel like a human lab rat!

To further eliminate harmful chemistry to me, I found a supply of sodium thiosulfate (97% tech grade) at $5 per Kg. Using a mix of 100g/litre, I see no difference in the clearing time of Delta 400 or Delta 3200 films compared to a rapid fixer of ammonium thiosulfate with other lovely ingredients. I'm fixing the RC paper in this for about 2 minutes. No acid stop baths anymore - just tap water.

In any case, I'm hoping these ingredients will allow me to print again, even if only for limited times with select negatives. It all makes me reflect on how much I had taken for granted in the art of photography.

My thanks to the many people here on FADU for their encouragement, suggestions and ideas to help point me in the direction to start solving this bio chemistry problem.

cheers

Bruce

p.s. I just uploaded an example of this process to my album

Dave miller
12th August 2009, 06:07 AM
Good news so far Bruce, please keep us informed of progress and results.

Trevor Crone
12th August 2009, 07:34 AM
Indeed, good news Bruce and I hope it continues to go well for you. I think the potential hazards of photographic chemicals is something a lot of us tend to take for granted.

B&W Neil
12th August 2009, 08:27 AM
Good news Bruce, I hope things go well for you with your other tests. Do keep us all posted as and when you can.

Neil.

Bob
12th August 2009, 09:14 AM
Sounds good Bruce. As far as I recall, the main reason for the other ingredients in fixer are to buffer it against pH changes and for longevity. I have read that pure hypo fixer does not last long so if you store it in liquid form you may want to do a clearing-time test every time you use it to make sure it has not died in the meantime.

A simple way to test the fixing time on paper is to expose some small strips of the paper to room light and then put them in the fixer for different amounts of time (10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 1min, 1:15, 1:30, 2mins etc) marking the time on the back of each beforehand in pencil. Then drop them in the developer in turn and see at which fixing time they stop turning black; probably best to double this time and then use that as your standard fixing time for that paper. You will need to dump this developer afterwards as it will be contaminated by the fixer from the paper.

Best of luck with your continuing experiments :)

Richard Gould
12th August 2009, 09:46 AM
Thats great news,Bruce, Hope everything goes well with your further tests and you get more time in the darkroom,Richard

darkclassical
13th August 2009, 12:19 AM
Thank you again! Ok Bob, I'll keep a close watch on the hypo.
In the meantime, I'm allowing a few days in between experiments to be sure of continued zero side effects. Next, I must learn how to relax once again in my darkroom!