Chicago Albumen Works Centennial Paper

nmp · Jan 8, 2019

mshchem said:
Do you think it will still be good? The box is in perfect condition, not sure how it was stored. I'm going to need to get some help to make a couple of digital negatives of the appropriate density. I have a 8x10 Deardorff V8, so I can make negatives. Going to need to get out and busy. I will try some small prints 1st . I have plenty of gold toner ingredients and bulk plain hypo. I have wanted to try a properly coated P.O.P. for ever. I played with Kodak Studio Proof 40 years ago, I didn't know what I was doing.

I have a decade old pack that is still good. But then I bought it myself and had stored it in a fridge all this time. Not knowing how the person stored yours, I wouldn't venture a guess. It is easy enough to check without doing any real contact prints - cut a couple of small pieces, put one in the sun for some time, may be 10-20 minutes and leave the other in the dark. Fix them both - the latter should be nice and white and the former yellowish brown.

There are a lot of people here who can help with digital negatives. Feel free.

Good luck!

mshchem · Jan 11, 2019

nmp said:
I have a decade old pack that is still good. But then I bought it myself and had stored it in a fridge all this time. Not knowing how the person stored yours, I wouldn't venture a guess. It is easy enough to check without doing any real contact prints - cut a couple of small pieces, put one in the sun for some time, may be 10-20 minutes and leave the other in the dark. Fix them both - the latter should be nice and white and the former yellowish brown.

There are a lot of people here who can help with digital negatives. Feel free.

Good luck!

I got the box today, paper isn't bright white, it does fix to a white base. No sun here, I have a contact printer that has Argon lamps gives off some UV paper is definitely responding. I think I will be able to make it work. Need bright sun. Snow tomorrow.

nmp · Jan 13, 2019

mshchem said:
I got the box today, paper isn't bright white, it does fix to a white base. No sun here, I have a contact printer that has Argon lamps gives off some UV paper is definitely responding. I think I will be able to make it work. Need bright sun. Snow tomorrow.

Yeah, the base is warm off-white, not bright white.

Looks like you are all set. Looking forward to see what you print.

mshchem · Jan 13, 2019

The Argon lamps are a bust. I made a contact print in very weak sun of a 617 negative , broke all the rules used rapid fix , looked pretty drab. So I dunked it in some really strong 25% Se toner it looked great for about 30 seconds, turned nice and black. Then the toner started to bleach out everything.
I need sun and time

nmp · Jan 13, 2019

mshchem said:
The Argon lamps are a bust. I made a contact print in very weak sun of a 617 negative , broke all the rules used rapid fix , looked pretty drab. So I dunked it in some really strong 25% Se toner it looked great for about 30 seconds, turned nice and black. Then the toner started to bleach out everything.
I need sun and time

Once I tried to see what the base paper measures in the scanner so I can compare with processed paper. So I put a piece of the POP in the scanner. To my surprise, it started getting exposed right away from the very first (preview) scan. So I set it for continuous scans to see how far it can go. In about 30 minutes it seemed to be nearly fully exposed. Here are some of the scans:

The scanner was Epson 3200. The scans are very roughly 0, 2, 4, 7, 10, 15, 30 minutes of total scan time.

Weird...and neat - you can watch the exposure in progress. Never tried with a negative though.

Anyway, this is something you can use while you wait for the Sun to come out and play....

For Se toning you will have to wash the fixer completely out of the paper first. Otherwise it will react with the toner to give dark precipitates, staining the paper. Also, straight toner will be too aggressive, I am using 1:60 dilution.

mshchem · Jan 14, 2019

nmp said:
Once I tried to see what the base paper measures in the scanner so I can compare with processed paper. So I put a piece of the POP in the scanner. To my surprise, it started getting exposed right away from the very first (preview) scan. So I set it for continuous scans to see how far it can go. In about 30 minutes it seemed to be nearly fully exposed. Here are some of the scans:

View attachment 215113 View attachment 215114 View attachment 215115 View attachment 215116 View attachment 215117 View attachment 215118 View attachment 215119

The scanner was Epson 3200. The scans are very roughly 0, 2, 4, 7, 10, 15, 30 minutes of total scan time.

Weird...and neat - you can watch the exposure in progress. Never tried with a negative though.

Anyway, this is something you can use while you wait for the Sun to come out and play....

For Se toning you will have to wash the fixer completely out of the paper first. Otherwise it will react with the toner to give dark precipitates, staining the paper. Also, straight toner will be too aggressive, I am using 1:60 dilution.

That's fascinating! I am going to slow down and follow the instructions. I have gold chloride, everything I need . Even very dilute hardening Kodak F6 fixer bleaches it. This is stated clearly in the instructions. I'm in no big hurry. It's a great material, but I'm glad I have the modern stuff. This is a great insight into the past.

Chicago Albumen Works Centennial Paper

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