[pure-silver] Re: After sinks, your favourite tongs?

  • From: jeffrey <puresilver@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:26:21 -0700

I use bamboo tongs for test strips and contact sheets. A combination of tongs and bare hands for final prints. (Tongs dip into the chemistry and pull the print into the air - finger tips take it from there.)

I only use latex gloves for mixing chemistry and handling pyro developer and toners.




Another casualty of the changing times for darkroom. Kenro make (made) my favourite tongs, 10 inches long, stainless steel, replaceable rubber tips, perfect shape, firm grip with minimal pressure, never mark the emulsion, never snap.
Guess what - they have discontinued production.

I have searched around all my suppliers for decent alternatives and the choice is very limited for these grossly underestimated tools! It may sound trivial but I think that really good tongs are not only a joy to use, they are surprisingly hard to find.

So what are your favourite tongs, why and where do you get them?

I will second the use of gloves. I could never get used to tongs and very little control. After dropping several wet prints on the floor (emulsion down of course), I went to using latex exam gloves (tight fitting) and jhave been quite pleased with them. It is 95% as good as bare hands.

As to the use of latex, I use only neutral to slightly alkaline developers and fixes and only phenidone-ascorbic acid for my developers. Things may penetrate the gloves but it leaves no residue or smell. I too would use nitrile if I was using MQ, PQ MC or pyro developers and acid fix. I don't tone anything either.

JB


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