[pure-silver] Re: D-Max with pyro

Sodium hydroxide, being such a strong alkali, is rather hard to control.
I would suggest adding small amounts of sodium metaborate (Kodalk) until
the pH of the Flexicolor fixer is what you want.  Keep track of the
total amount for subsequent batches.  I suggest sodium metabrate as
Kodak suggests using it instead of borax to raise the pH of one of their
fixers.

-----Original Message-----
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of john stockdale
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 7:49 PM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: D-Max with pyro


At 08:20 AM  15/12/2005, Russ Gorman wrote:
><snip>
>It seems that using a water stop bath , and TF-4 fixer, to be a huge 
>part of getting consistent stain.  It is easy to make the stain 
>disappear ( either completely or unevenly) with an acid stop or with 
>traditional fixer. Weak fixer can also lead to uneven stain as well as 
>uneven clearing of silver.
>
>That said, to the eye the negatives tend to look a little brownish ( 
>some emulsions look greenish or yellowish) and a little thinner than 
>negs developed in Rodinal or D-76 but not greatly so.  They also tend 
>to have lots of information in the shadows and highlights in spite of 
>their "thinner" appearence. The difference is not really apparent until

>they are on a light table side by side with negatives developed in 
>other chemistry.
>
>One of the nice things due to tanning of the emulsion in Pyro is that 
>they are dust and scratch free... Clear skies and smooth clean skin.

Consistency seems to be important, and I have found that new PMK did not

give as much stain as when somewhat older.  Now I top up my aged PMK
with a 
little of a new batch so that I don't have any sudden changes.

I have been using a slightly alkaline fixer (Agfa FX-Universal, pH=7.5 
approx, made for C-41 primarily but quite ok for black and white).  My 
stain is consistently olive/khaki, but nowhere near as green as some
I've 
seen on web pages.  With the demise of Agfa, and with importation to the

end of the Earth here of Formulary products impractical, I might have to

start mixing up some slightly alkaline fixer.  I bought some Kodak 
Flexicolor Fixer the other day (pH=6.1) and was disapponted that it has
the 
characteristic "acidic" smell of ordinary acid fixers, even though it is

not as acidic as they are.  I might add something alkaline to it.  Would
a 
tiny bit of sodium hydroxide be ok?

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