Can I use potassium ferricyanide to rescue fogged edges?

[Merissa]

I know p. ferricyanide can be used to spot prints; I was wondering if it could also be used to rescue the fogged edges of some poorly handled/stored paper. (Not my doing, the paper was donated to my school.) If so, what dilution do I use?

Ignore the quality of the photo, but I’ve attached a picture of my prints so you can see the damage.

 

[cmacd123]

it will certainly fade away silver. and fixer will also be required. You may find the tone is different in the treated area. Search "Farmers Reducer" names after a dude named Farmer as it happens.

 

[Merissa]

it will certainly fade away silver. and fixer will also be required. You may find the tone is different in the treated area. Search "Farmers Reducer" names after a dude named Farmer as it happens.

Gee thanks! I have some pre-mixed p. ferricyanide used for cyanotypes, but that isn’t the correct dilution. I’ll have to buy some from photographer’s formulary

 

[koraks]

the correct dilution

It's not very critical. Dilution controls speed of bleaching, and very dilute solutions will have trouble bleaching the silver all out. However, cyanotype-strength ferricyanide is plenty strong enough, especially if you take a little and mix some fixer in with it. Farmer's reducer tends to be way faster than just bleaching.

 

[pentaxuser]

I am confused, Merissa. Are you referring solely to the borders only which are age fogged. If they are age fogged then presumably that has affected the print quality but maybe the print quality looks OK or OK enough for you not to want do anything

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[Molli]

I am confused, Merissa. Are you referring solely to the borders only which are age fogged. If they are age fogged then presumably that has affected the print quality but maybe the print quality looks OK or OK enough for you not to want do anything

Thanks

pentaxuser

I was looking in the wrong spot, too. Look down the left edge of each print; they look to be light struck, not age fogged. I have some old Agfa Brovira in exactly the same state. For all of my messing around rescuing old papers, do you know, it never occurred to me to bleach away what I've been referring to as "burnt edges"?


Thank you, @Merissa, I'll be having a play with that myself soon. It's a shame you don't live near by, Potassium Ferricyanide is something I always have on hand and would have been happy to share!

 

[GregY]

The print tones themselves look great. I'm thinking along the same lines as Molli. Are you going to mount the prints?...or store them? They'd look great float mounted in which case the edge marking will get cut off....& it's not an issue.

 

[Merissa]

The print tones themselves look great. I'm thinking along the same lines as Molli. Are you going to mount the prints?...or store them? They'd look great float mounted in which case the edge marking will get cut off....& it's not an issue.

Likely will store these prints. I’m currently on a tight student’s budget and need to work with the materials I have, otherwise I’d love to mount them. Thanks for the suggestion!

Edit: I’m glad the tones are nice. I’ve been experimenting with split grading.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Merissa,

Ferricyanide will work just fine for what you need. Be careful not to get any on the image itself! I'd soak the prints, squeegee them well and slap them on the back of a tray at an almost vertical angle. Keep a hose with gently running water in one hand and apply the bleach with the other using a Japanese calligraphy brush or other non-metal-ferruled brush (the metal can react with the ferricyanide and cause staining). Bleach till the spots you need gone have disappeared, rinse with the hose and then soak the print in water for a few minutes. Finish by refixing and washing as usual. Don't forget to refix!

Ferricyanide by itself bleaches rather slowly and not always completely. By adding a bit of conventional sodium thiosulfate fixer, you end up making Farmer's Reducer, which works faster. This is irreversible, so take care when bleaching. Dilution is not all that critical, but you can easily find a formula for Farmer's Reducer online.

Alternately, you could just trim the borders with a good-quality paper trimmer.

Best,

Doremus

 

[pentaxuser]

Merissa,


Alternately, you could just trim the borders with a good-quality paper trimmer.

Best,

Doremus

Is it just my eyesight that's poor as I can only see one burnt edge on the left of the middle print? I'd just use your alternative in this case. Simpler and safer. If the light struck edge or edges, assuming that is what it or they are, came much closer to the actual picture then I'd be tempted to use paint on masking fluid in that area of the print before using Farmer's

Even a slight slip with the Farmer's might affect the picture enough to spoil the look

pentaxuser

 

[Merissa]

Even a slight slip with the Farmer's might affect the picture enough to spoil the look

I’m not feeling too precious about these prints (as I printed them on donated paper to begin with) so I went ahead and tried it. Could be my ferricyanide was weeks old (I’ve read this solution has a shelf life of less than an hour), but I got an orange-brown tone where the burnt edge was. I’ll end up trimming my future prints on this paper.

That being said, I don’t regret my experiments. And even made some cool effects by painting and splattering farmer’s reducer on the scrap prints I have tons of.

Thanks all for the wisdom.