Fixing capacity for ilford archival procedure

[Jarin Blaschke]

Hi everybody:

I created a basic convertible darkroom in my bathroom, making 8x10 contact prints.

For a few reasons, I am pursuing the single tray, 1 minute in rapid fix method, rather than the two-tray method.

My understanding is that the fixer needs to be particularly "fresh" for this method to work, and facilitate effective washing (and fixing). The thing is, I don't know what that means, specifically. Can anyone posit a conservative number of 8x10 prints to pass through 1 liter of rapid alkaline fix before a completely fresh new batch should be made? 10 prints, 20 prints? More? Less?

After fixing, prints hang out in occasionally emptied/refilled holding trays of water, then washed all together in flowing water for 45 minutes at the end of the session.

I use a citric acid stop (15g/ L) and

TF3 fixer:
800ml distilled water
200ml of 60% Ammonium Thiousulfate
15 g sodium sulfite
1.2g Sodium Metaborate


Thanks!

 

[MattKing]

Doremus Scudder has a number of informative posts in this thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Particularly note post #24.
You will go through a lot of fixer.

 

[Jarin Blaschke]

Thanks. Looks like 12 prints for every liter I prepare. If a printing session looks like it will require 20 sheets, I can just put 2L in the tray without having to mix again.

 

[Mr Bill]

My understanding is that the fixer needs to be particularly "fresh" for this method to work, and facilitate effective washing (and fixing). The thing is, I don't know what that means, specifically. Can anyone posit a conservative number of 8x10 prints to pass through 1 liter of rapid alkaline fix before a completely fresh new batch should be made?

Hi, the formula you give is essentially a "normal" sort of rapid fixer, so I'd suggest to go by the Ilford instructions - they have a "Rapid Fixer" fact sheet for d/l.

In the section, "Silver concentration," they suggest, for commercial processing of fiber base paper, to keep the silver concentration below 2 g/l. They say this is approximately 40 8 x 10 inch prints, but I don't see where they specify what the fixer volume is, presumably 1liter of working solution?

For prints that need "maximum stability for long term storage..." they recommend to limit the maximum silver concentration to 0.5 g/l, for only about 10 prints [presumably per liter of working solution].

They also caution that this is only a guide and recommend that processed paper be tested via the procedure given.

As a note, Haist, in "Modern Photographic Processing," suggests a much lower silver concentration for "archival" prints. But I think you'll be pretty safe with Ilford's recs; at least you have the "authority" of Ilford behind you.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Jarin,

You've read the thread that Matt linked to and Mr. Bill's post above, so you kind of know what to expect. Ilford, for their Rapid Fixer and Hypam publish a capacity of only 10 8x10s per liter of "film-strength" fixer (1+4) if you want optimum permanence. Also, in order to take advantage of the shorter wash time, you need to keep fixing times right at 60 seconds (including drip time). If you're okay with using fixer like this, then no problem. However, since you are using TF-4, I'd be sure and do the residual hypo and residual silver tests once for your workflow. Push the fix far enough so that you get a negative result for the residual silver test, then back off and figure in a healthy safety factor. Same with washing; pull prints way to early and then at intervals and test them for residual hypo. What I do is simply fix a blank 5x7 test patch in between my regular printing now and then and process the patches along with the prints. These then get tested at the edges and in the center for both residual silver and hypo. The prints made after the point of fixer exhaustion simply get refixed in fresh fixer. Once you know your workflow is working, you can just randomly spot test every now and then.

If space is your limitation and you plan on toning, you can always add a second fix right before the toning in a separate session. This is what I do: I fix during the printing session with "paper-strength" fixer (1+9 Rapid Fixer) at a capacity of 36 8x10s per liter. This gives me "commercial" level permanence. I then collect and evaluate the prints. The keepers go to a toning session that consists of a water soak, fix 2 in the same fixer and dilution, selenium toner, wash aid, and finally, an archival wash of minimum 60 minutes. If I can later use the second fix as the first fix for the next printing session, it is a much more economical use of fixer. Often, however, I simply have to toss the second fix and mix a fresh first bath for the next session since the time between is too long. Still, it's more economical (and, I believe, better guarantees optimum fixation) than the one-bath method.

Hope this helps,

Doremus