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  #1  
Old 18th January 2012, 08:34 AM
Rob Hale Rob Hale is offline
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Default Hypo-alum toner, How?

Hi Mixers,

Has or does anyone use hypo – alum toner and if so did you use unexposed paper to build up the silver nitrate ?

How many sheets of what size and type of paper to how much liquid did you use ?

Is it better to leach the silver out in just sodium thiosulphate ? Or in the sodium thiosulphate potassium alum mix ?

And presumably one does the silver leaching in the “dark” ?

Regards

Rob
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Old 18th January 2012, 09:47 AM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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I've never used it, but get the impression that it is used on fully developed and fixed prints, and can therefore be carried out in normal lighting.
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Dave
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Old 18th January 2012, 12:56 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Default hypo alum toner thoughts

Plenty of info found on google, as I've just looked, including
HTML Code:
 http://www.jackspcs.com/has.htm
It appears it was more popular before the easy to buy / make newer sepia toners.

Seems it's an easy toner to use, with just two chemicals and Tim Rudman's book suggests using it at 49C/120F as at room temperature, the toning can take up to 24 hours!!!

Beautiful light brown to purple colours can be obtained apparently, depending upon the papers used and it is suggested that ageing of the toner, saves adding additional chemicals; which is done by putting in scraps of photo paper to 'ripen' it.

Never made or used it myself but sounds an interesting toner to try.
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Old 19th January 2012, 12:11 PM
Richard L Richard L is offline
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Used it a fair bit. Had a container of it for at least 5 years. When it gets a bit low it gets topped up with fresh solution.

The way I started out was to make up 5L of working solution, tip the lot into a big dish over a tray warmer then shove in a scrap print that has tons of dark tones. Leave it in up to a day. After that the working solution will be ok.

Its a slow toner, and needs to be warm/almost hot to work quickly. In a cool solution a print can take hours to start changing colour.

My solution gives a pleasing mid/slightly orangy tone on multigrade. It gets the light tones first, and is easy to pull a done print, due to the snail pace action.

Its cheap, it lasts for ever, it works, smells a bit, but it can be annoyingly slow.

Hope this helps.
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Old 20th January 2012, 06:52 PM
marty marty is offline
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Hello, there.
Rather than unexposed paper I'd use discarded prints to "ripen" the toner.
I don't remember how much it took but I bet everyone has a number of discarded prints lying around . Just keep toning until the color get right. In the beginning the toner will just bleach, after a while it will start to actually tone.When the color is stable you're done, it won't go further.
Oh, you're going to need a hot water bath or a warming plate to keep the solution at give or take 50°C to get reasonable times. RC paper will take 20-25' and the color will be light brownish from midtone to highlight. FB will take less than than that, I don't remember exactly since I mostly do RC these days, and the color will be definitely deep brown. The ripening will be no longer necessary if you keep topping up the working solution with the fresh one when the level goes down. The papers I used were neutral tone.

Cheers, M.
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Old 20th January 2012, 08:33 PM
Rob Hale Rob Hale is offline
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Hi

Thanks guys for this information.

That’s what I will do, thanks. Did you have some sodium chloride in the mix ? and did you put it in before you "ripened" or after ? Do you agitate the whole time ? or in bursts ?

Regards

Rob

Last edited by Rob Hale; 20th January 2012 at 08:37 PM.
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Old 20th January 2012, 10:57 PM
marty marty is offline
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No sodium chloride. I'm using the IT-2 formula which doesn't call for it. The agitation is more or less continuous, I do 4 or 5 prints a time in cycle. I keep moving 'em from top to bottom of the stack.

Cheers, M.
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  #8  
Old 19th January 2019, 05:28 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Hi all.

I'm resurrecting this thread as I have only just re-discovered (note my original comment on this thread, almost to the day on 18 January 2012) the formula etc. for Alum toner and I like the colouration of some of the sample prints that people have posted on the net.

The amounts seem easy enough and the temperature required of the toner (= 50C) should be easy to obtain. It will be keeping the toner at this temperature for a good while, as stated, that might be the hardest bit, as I am likely to try and tone out of doors due to the mentioned smell.

So, has anyone used this toner of late? If so some feedback and samples would be great.

But also, there are only two ingredients, with one of them being hypo.

Question: Is the addition of hypo strictly necessary or could one just tone a print in the alum (after the toner has been ripened with some test prints etc.), rinse it and then put it in the normal fixer bath again, or does hypo HAVE TO BE added at the start?

Terry S
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Old 19th January 2019, 06:24 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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You need the hypo as it's critical to have a high level of silver in the solution, which is why you ripen with Silver Nitrate or better still old prints, this is a toner that gets better with age.

Ian
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