Gimme your amidol recipes

Spent yesterday killing time in the darkroom, waiting for the sun to shine here in the pacific NW. I picked up a crusty box of old chems at the local photo shop for free that somebody had dumped off. Pulled out the cookbook to see what I come up with. There was a bottle of amidol, so I picked a recipe. The book said "blue-gray crystals, poor shelf life," and mine was black. Mixed it up anyways. The developer was the same color as my sink when I clean the barbeque grill.

Figuring it all to be a waste of time, I opened a pack of old Ektalure which I knew to be fogged about a stop, but couldn't bring myself to throw away.

I picked a neg and made an exposure for two minutes, based on nothing. Developed it for maybe four or five minutes. Made six prints, developing just visually. No test strips, burn, dodge, or drydown. Not very impressive either, they looked flat.

This morning I go to take the prints off the screen, and I just about flipped. These are the most gorgeous things I have ever seen! Deep blacks, a slightly bluish tone, no fogging (probaby because of the benzotriazole in the recipe).

Can I expect this from other chloro papers, or will most warm-tone papers respond like this? My epiphany was quickly tempered by a price check on the stuff at PF, but I still have about 50g of the black bottle left.

So now this paper and chemical that I was going to throw away is like gold, and I would like some wisdom on how best to use it. Tips on exposure/development and a favorite recipe would be greatly appreciated, as I think (know) I just got lucky this time.

I have found that most papers that I have used benefit from using Amidol as my paper developer. I use the MAS formula and find that it works very nicely. The benefit of that formula is that it has a nice tray life of a good day...much more than some Amidol formulas from what I have heard.

The MAS formula is found on michaelandpaula.com...I use the one for enlarging paper

I also use Michael Smiths amidol formula. I've had amidol mix everything from dark orange, to light pink, to grey, to solid black. I find they all do the job the same.

Ah, didn't think to check michael and paula. I used the Ed Weston formula from the Cookbook, which listed benzotriazole as an optional ingredient, and probably accounted for the long development times. Yeah, and the stuff I have looks like black sand. Nice to know I have enough for a few more sessions, as long as I stick to 8X10.

I'm sorry...I forgot to say that I replace the Pot. Bromide in MAS's formula with benzotriazole. I found the PB gave prints that were to green for my taste and the benzo gives a more neutral-slight cool tone.

I have an original hand written darkroom note from Edward Weston that has his formula written down. It shows he used both PB and Benzo at the same time.

The beauty of using Amidol is that it is usually recognized as being the most active developing agent and is capable of being active in acid solutions.

If the color of the print is too cool, you can increase the KBr (potassium bromide) somewhat. If the color of the print is too warm, you can increase the benzatriazole somewhat.

The Unblinking Eye website has a collection of Amidol formulas.

Ryan, how much of the benzo are you using in the MAS formula? I'm assuming it's the Azo formula, as the enlarging formula already has benzo.

I, too, love the papers I've tried in MAS amidol. I have usually used the Azo formula - especially with Polywarmtone.

Now I'm off on the paper chase again, so I'll be looking to fine tune my amidol.
juan