Flushing the negatives

[RickEmmanuel]

In past years, for me, washing the negative roll was problematic. The shiny side would often become streaky from the salt residue in my local water supply. So, I resorted to boiling a large pan of water for an hour and decanting the salts off. Yet now, in recent years the Lancashire water supply has been as pure as can be. After 'washing' - which equates to dunking the spiral of film up and down in the open tank, about 20 times in about 5 changes of tap water - I Photo Flo for a minute or two; shake of as much water as I can then wipe the shiny side across a reel of kitchen roll, held between my knees. No scratches and importantly no salt rings or streaks. Then I hang up the length of film in a cupboard over night.