Accutance Developer 8x10

psvensson said:

Hydroquinone solutions are not regarded as dangerous by contact. Millions of people have used skin creams with hydroquinone in concentrations around a few percent, comparable to very strong developer. They are regarded as safe by dermatologists for use up to three months.

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My choice of words was perhaps not the best. Most people don't react to dilute solutions of these chemicals (pyrogallol, catechol, hydroquinone, glycin, metol, etc.) via skin contact, but some do.

Good chemical safety practice says wear gloves, preferably nitrile gloves when handling the wet chemistry.

gainer said:

Yes, but you'll play heck getting it to stain with that much sulfite. If you mix your own D-76, try sometime keeping all concentrations but sulfite by the book, but reduce sulfite to 10 grams or less per liter instead of 100. This will be an experiment, so don't use it on a once-in-a-lifetime shot on LF film.

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I followed my own advice. 2 g metol, 5 g hydroquinone, 2 g borax and 10 g sodium sulfite to make a liter. It is about as fast as D-76 1:1. The results reminded me of what I saw about 35 years ago when I first tried D-76 1:1. No stain.

This is just a matter of interest. I figured the original poster didn't want the stain, wasn't thinking about toxicity. Substitute about 5 g soduim ascorbate for the hydroquinone and you won't have either stain or toxicity except that from the metol. Substitute 0.2 g phenidone, and you're there almost free. 25 or 50 cents a gallon.

FX39 is a very sharp developer indeed and with triX I can imagine the grain would be horrendous in an enlargement (pretty bad even with a tradtitional med speed film like FP4), but of course thats OK for contacts! Cheap and convenient so give it a go.

Thank You

Thanks all for your replies.

Bob