Blue Iron Toner - how un-archival is this stuff?

I have an image I'd like to tone in blue. Reading up on blue toners, I know they are not supposed to be an archival type toner. It is also said to fade when washed aggressively.

How bad is this non-archival "stuff" really? Someone said it's "notorious" in one of the old posts. I'm going to tone fiber paper, so it'll be hard to wash completely if I am not supposed to wash for long period. I don't need this print to last 150 years but I do want it to last decades.

Can someone give me some idea?

I have a few blue toned prints dating back to 1920-1930 and they look fine to me. However, I don't know what toner was used, and they have been stored in boxes since I've had them. I would tend to believe that whilst blue toners are not the ultimate in the archival stakes, they would certainly outlast most of us.

I have a lot of failures with blue toner and a few spectacular successes.
I will follow this thread to see how you work out.

My goal was/is to bleach wash sepia, wash gold toner then iron blue. effect when it works is warm yellow highlights, peach midtones and cold shadows .. like I said when it works a look to die for.
On murals the effect is outstanding.

good luck, with a pretty tough project if you plan to multitone.

tkamiya said:

I have an image I'd like to tone in blue. Reading up on blue toners, I know they are not supposed to be an archival type toner. It is also said to fade when washed aggressively.

How bad is this non-archival "stuff" really? Someone said it's "notorious" in one of the old posts. I'm going to tone fiber paper, so it'll be hard to wash completely if I am not supposed to wash for long period. I don't need this print to last 150 years but I do want it to last decades.

Can someone give me some idea?

Click to expand...

Blue toner chemically creates the equivalent of the "dye" Prussian Blue, which was one the first synthetic pigments developed sometime during the 18th century and since then a popular blue pigment for creating oil paints. It is quite stable in these paintings. The pigment created is also equivalent to cyanotypes, and they have lasted for over 1.5 century, since the dawn of photography.

Yes, they can be faded through exposure to light and alkaline (opposite of acid) conditions, but this fading is to quite an extent reversible, if the print is stored for some time in the dark, see also Mike Ware's documentations on alternative processes:

http://www.mikeware.co.uk/mikeware/conservation.html

If you start to use blue toner, one big tip is to acidify your print before toning, getting rid of the alkaline buffer in most papers, by for example putting it in an acidic bath similar to your stop bath used during development for some time (but don't use your developer contaminated stop bath for it!)

Bob,

What kind of failures, other than artistic ones, did you encounter? Any tips on how to proceed with the blue toner for successful results? (other than dip, wash, and evaluate?)

My toner went into back order.... ARGH!

Lots of mottling, uneveness, scum that had to be removed, hard to get a consistent look , those kind of things, imagine some of the problems with brown toner and also add on the wash off effect ..
Kind of hard to decide when to stop washing..
Remember I am working with large prints when I use this toner.

tkamiya said:

Bob,

What kind of failures, other than artistic ones, did you encounter? Any tips on how to proceed with the blue toner for successful results? (other than dip, wash, and evaluate?)

My toner went into back order.... ARGH!

Click to expand...

The blue tones prints from the 1920's are probably cyanotypes, rather than a blue-toned silver emulsion.

I have a blue toned print from the forties that is unchanged from the day it was made. Remember the blue in blue jeans is prussian blue. The color doesn't wash out or fade. The only way to remove it is with bottle strength hypochlorite bleach.

BTW, the conversion from a silver to a prussian blue print was straight forward. I encountered no problems. I was 9 years old at the time and the photo was of a winter scene with my girl friend at the time.