[pure-silver] Re: b&w print has discolored - re:Richard's comment on washing

At 09:05 AM 3/27/2008, you wrote:

What Richard said here makes me wonder about another practice of
mine.  Here's how I wash my prints.  I wash off the back side of the
print just a few seconds, then I lay the print, image side up, on an
inverted tray under the stream of water in the deep sink.  It washes
there for several minutes.  But what about any residue I'm leaving in
the underside of the paper?

I've only been printing in my own darkroom since (I think) 2002.
I'll look through my oldest prints, but I don't recall seeing
problems in them over this length of time.  There is one in
particular that I could, under no circumstances, duplicate.  I
wouldn't want that one to go bad.  I took special care fixing and
washing... as I washed.  But am I washing insufficiently without the
water circulating to the backside?  I don't have a "proper" print
washer, like they had in the darkroom class I took - neither do I
have room for one in my small darkroom.

Oh, and I'm glad I never ordered double-weighted fiber but once.
Yikes!  That's a lot of water.

Janet
Its a good idea to agitate prints as they wash. The water must have free access to all of the paper. The back side of RC does not absorb anything but its best to make sure its washed off. I suggest finding a Kodak Tray Syphon, they are readily available used for not too much. In a reasonable tray they make a very efficient washer and there is usually enough movement of the water to insure that the prints move around a bit. However, prints can still stick to the bottom of the tray so should be poked occasionally. RC prints wash in four minutes so its not much both to see that they don't stick. For RC prints and small amounts of fiber prints I use an old 16x20 tray with a tray syphon. BTW, it IS possible to over wash! about 1961 T.H.James of Kodak Research Laboratories discovered that a very small residue of hypo in the emulsion acted as a stabilizer and passivator for the image silver giving it some protection from oxidation. This was such heresy than he didn't publish his findings until about a year later when someone at Fuji's lab published the same finding. Becaus of this Kodak revised all their recommendations for washing of film and paper and discontinued the recommendation for using Kodak Hypo Eliminator alltogether. The instructions for Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent (completely different from the eliminator) take into account the findings of this and other research. The presence of this very small amount of hypo will not affect toning. Nor does it take the place of toning which provides much greater protection. 






--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
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