Brown Glycin

[Mark Layne]

My stock of Glycin is now brown. Is this still useable(in Ansco 130) or will it stain highlights?

Mark

 

[payral]

My stock of Glycin is now brown. Is this still useable(in Ansco 130) or will it stain highlights?

Mark

The answer is very easy…

Try It !

 

[sanking]

My experience is that the answer is obvious even before you try it. If glycin is brown, it is either useless or seriously deteriorated, and results will be compromised.

Better to toss it and get some new stock in my opinion.

Sandy

The answer is very easy…

Try It !

 

[Wayne]

What Sandy said. I have two brown bottles here if you want some more. The Formulary is drying a freshly cooked batch at this very moment.

 

[jim appleyard]

I would guess that old, brown glycin would stain your entire print, not just the highlights a bit brown. A friend recently gave me an old, open bottle of glycin (close to a pound of the stuff tho') and a sizeable amount of old metol. I used both to make Ansco 130 and got prints that had a "warmtone" to them. I don't know if it was the glycin or the metol or both. The prints looked ok, but only if it's the look you desire.

 

[Mark Layne]

My experience is that the answer is obvious even before you try it. If glycin is brown, it is either useless or seriously deteriorated, and results will be compromised.

Better to toss it and get some new stock in my opinion.

Sandy

That's what I thought but have seen a thread here saying it made no difference
Mark

 

[Wayne]

I have free brown glycin for anyone who wants to try. One bottle even has some really nice, dark Hershey kiss-like blobs in it. Maybe I should put it on ebay? You cant just order glycin like this.

I was talking to the Formulary recently and they once had someone request brown glycin. They didnt want it fresh. Maybe they know something we dont know. Or not.

 

[tim atherton]

am I right in thinking that glycin dev in powder form has a very short life?

are you better off mixing it up and storing it in liquid form? what lifespan for the liquid?

tim a

 

[sanking]

I store the powder frozen. That increases the useful life a lot. I have some now in the freezer that has been there for about nine months and it is still nice and white.

Needless to say, exercise a lot of caution if storing in a food freezer as some might confuse the white powder with something else, cocaine for example.

Sandy

am I right in thinking that glycin dev in powder form has a very short life?

are you better off mixing it up and storing it in liquid form? what lifespan for the liquid?

tim a

 

[jim appleyard]

Needless to say, exercise a lot of caution if storing in a food freezer as some might confuse the white powder with something else, cocaine for example.

Sandy

Why, who would store cocaine in their photo freezer? That would be illegal! You have to have two different freezers; one for drugs, one for photo stuff.

I wonder what kind of high you'd get when snorting glycin?

 

[Wayne]

am I right in thinking that glycin dev in powder form has a very short life?

are you better off mixing it up and storing it in liquid form? what lifespan for the liquid?

tim a

A. Yes. 3 to 6 months, more or less. Its always lasted 6 for me, ymmv.

B. Liquids-either a stock developer solution, or a glycin % solution, will keep at least twice as long as the dry chemical. I have used 2 year old stock solution. It was a bit slow but worked suprisingly well. 6 months to 1 year is probably the "expected" lifespan, to err on the safe side, but it may still be usable at one year or beyond. Probably better to buy less or freeze the powder rather than count on it though.

I'm bored, and cant get any glycin till at least next week, so I think I might mix up some brown glycin developer tonight just to amuse myself.

 

[Wayne]

whoa. Check this out. 10 years!

http://tinyurl.com/bzf8n

 

[BBarlow690]

I used brown glycin (well, tan) to mix Ansco 130 and didn't suffer any ill effects. I have used 2 year old stock solutions of Ansco 130 and other glycin paper developers with wonderful results.

I was told to mix glycin developers ASAP, and the stock solutions will last much longer than powdered glycin.

 

[Gerald Koch]

It helps to keep developing agents in glass containers rather than in the plastic ones in which they are usually supplied. The containers should be stored in a dark, cool place. Another trick is to take a few grams of either sodium or potassium bisulfite and place it on a small bit of thin cotton cloth or nylon stocking. Then tie up the cloth with a bit of string to make a bag and place it on top of the Glycin. The bisulfite will absorb oxygen and help preserve the developing agent.

 

[avandesande]

glycin would definitly benefit from being stored in a freezer. every 10c doubles the storage life of the chemical.

 

[nworth]

My experience is that glycin has a very short shelf life. Maybe that is the reason it fell into disfavor some years ago. As it ages, it goes from very white to very brown. It loses activity roughly in proportion to the color change. I wouldn't trust anything deeper than a light to mid tan, maybe about six to eight mnths old. Brown stuff won't work at all. Really tan stuff is weak and may also leave a green stain.

 

[Wayne]

My final results wont be in until the prints dry in the morning, but I mixed up soup tonight with cocoa brown, 3 year old glycin (not the stuff with really dark blobs in it). I compared prints with ones made in (almost) the same soup several years ago. Tentative results are that it seems to have worked almost like new. More in the morning.

 

[juan]

I have glycin that's a year and a half old stored in my freezer. It has turned just slightly brown - I wouldn't say it's even to ivory yet. I mixed a fresh batch of 130 with it about a month ago and it works just like new.
juan

 

[Wayne]

OK, heres what happened. I mixed up 3.5 year old cocoa brown glycin into a formula similar to Ansco 130 Adams version but with phenidone instead of metol. The stock solution looks like coffee, and I could barely see the image in the developer mixed 1:1.
I made one test strip and one full 8x10 contact print of a negative that I also printed with this developer several years ago. They came out very similar. There are some differences in the skintones, they came out sort of ruddy, but the Forte Polywarmtone paper has been laying around for years which may account for some of it. There is no stain that I can see. I dont have any other old prints using this developer to compare to , so my conclusion is the brown stuff isnt perfect but it still works to a large degree. Ymmv. Nevertheless, I'll be tossing this mixture when my fresh glycin arrives. For all I know it works for an hour and then craps out.

 

[jim appleyard]

Any excuse to get in the darkroom. There are far worse things that could be happening to you

 

[Wayne]

And they will be any day now. Its called work.

 

[Andrew Forrester]

I recently mixed up a batch of AA's version of Ansco 130 using the final scrappings of my 3 y/o Glycin which was coffee brown in colour & had been stored in a recycled jam jar in my darkroom.

The developer was that dark you struggled to see the print in the tray. The white borders of the prints were evenly stained, looking like they had been lightly toned in tea.

I'm about to order some more Glycin from PF & when it arrives I will take the advise in this thread & freeze it.

Andrew