How to use Moersch mt10 gold toner

Erik Petersson · Jun 19, 2018

Hello,

I bought a small bottle of Moersch mt10 gold toner. It did not come with any instructions or data sheet, and the Moersch site does not include such information. So I turn to you! Grateful for any advice.

I would like to try to tone ordinary black and white pictures on fiber paper, but I also play around a little with lumen prints, which benefit from a bit of gold toning, I understand.

What I am looking for is basic information about the process. Should the toner be used diluted or not? Should the print be toned before or after fixing? Can I tone a print that has already been finished (fixed, washed, dried)? Should I wash between toning and fixing? And so on. Thanks!

/E

Tor-Einar Jarnbjo · Jun 20, 2018

The gold toner from Moersch should be used undiluted. You have to fix and rinse the print as usual before toning, leave the print in the toner until the desired effect has been reached and then rinse again (the same time as you rinse after fixing). You can also tone prints, which have already been dried, but at least with FB papers, I would then pre-soak the print in water before toning. Otherwise, the dry paper base would soak up quite a lot of the quite expensive gold toner.

Most papers don't change much visually when toning with gold, but you increase archival stability of the print. If you want changes in the visual appearance of the print, you usually combine gold toner with other toners. A common combination is e.g. first sulphur toning (which in itself gives you sepia toned prints) followed by gold toning, which then gives reddish tones.

Erik Petersson · Jun 20, 2018

Thanks Tor-Einar, this was helpful!

LarsAC · Jun 21, 2018

I guess, if you contact Wolfgang Moersch via his website, he will also send you the notes that come with the product.

Lars

Tor-Einar Jarnbjo · Jun 21, 2018

LarsAC said:
I guess, if you contact Wolfgang Moersch via his website, he will also send you the notes that come with the product.

There are probably no instructions coming with the product and there are none available at the web site. I doubt that there are any at all. The product documentation from Moersch is usually scarce. The only thing e.g. 'coming with' the MT4 and MT5 toners is a note about the dilution they can be used at, 1:20-1:200 for the MT4 and 1:10-1:50 for the MT5 toner.

Online, you will find a huge gallery with examples, many of them combining different special developers and multiple toning baths, but Moersch seems to expect that his customers know at least the basics of toning with standard products.

RauschenOderKorn · Jun 21, 2018

Well actually, there is a general library of instructions on his web-page, but it is not always up-to-date:

https://www.moersch-photochemie.de/content/knowhow/datenblaetter

Unfortunately, there are no instructions for the MT10

For some specific products, like the MT4 and MT5, there are very long and detailed instructions with lots of examples on his web page. This is usually linked directly from the product. For MT4 and MT5:

https://www.moersch-photochemie.de/content/artikel/anleitungen/113

Erik Petersson · Jun 24, 2018

Hello, I want to thank all of you for your clarifying replies. I did not have time to respond earlier.
The sepia toning idea seems interesting, thanks for that. There are a couple of sepia toner bottles in the darkroom that I might try this with.
Unfortunately it turns out I will only have time to test all this in a month from now. Looking forward! And thanks again!
/E

Tor-Einar Jarnbjo · Jun 24, 2018

Erik Petersson said:
Hello, I want to thank all of you for your clarifying replies. I did not have time to respond earlier.
The sepia toning idea seems interesting, thanks for that. There are a couple of sepia toner bottles in the darkroom that I might try this with.
Unfortunately it turns out I will only have time to test all this in a month from now. Looking forward! And thanks again!
/E

I am not sure what your intention with the gold toning is? If you expect any significant change in the visual appearance of your prints, you will likely be very dissapointed with the gold toner.

Erik Petersson · Jun 24, 2018

I have been experimenting with lumen prints for a while, and I am impressed by Wolfgang Moersch's results. He often uses gold toner.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgang_moersch/albums/72157646283869476
I figure it will be worth the cost of the bottle to experiment a little.

eddie · Jun 24, 2018

I haven't used M10, but have used the sepia/gold combo. I get light peach colors to almost blazing oranges. One thing to remember is heating the gold will extend its life, as it loses effectiveness.

These were done with that combination:

Erik Petersson · Jun 24, 2018

looks nice. Do the different colors depend on the papers or the processing?

eddie · Jun 24, 2018

Those were both on either Ilford MGIV or MGIVWT. A lot has to do with the processing. It also has to do with the age/effectiveness of the gold. It's also hard to tell how much color a print has taken while it's under the solution. Even though it's clear, you'll need to pull the print occasionally to see the color effect.

M Carter · Jun 24, 2018

I've used gold toner (mixed myself) with warmtone lith prints and they go a really nice and subtle blue or lilac. My understanding is gold toner + warmtone paper = cool tones/blues. But I haven't found much info on things like gold after selenium or other toners.

Erik Petersson · Jan 1, 2019

Hi, thanks again for your help. Here's an example of the results I get when I gold tone my lumen prints with the Moersch.

pentaxuser · Jan 1, 2019

My memory is becoming hazy as it was quite a while ago i.e. several years at least but a former member here called Dave Miller processed an Ilford RC print( I think) in gold toner. It was a sea scene and it turned the sea into a great pale blue colour. It was so good it looked as if he had hand-coloured the sea in a delicate pale blue but it was gold toner. I cannot say if it was a Moersch toner. It is worth a look. Search under the name Dave Miller

It indicated to me that gold toner even by itself was capable of making an appreciable difference to some scenes at least.

pentaxuser

Erik Petersson · Jan 2, 2019

Hi Pentaxuser,

it appears that Dave's post has been removed. I did find Dave among the users, but no uploaded media from him.
The examples by Wolfgang Moersch himself convinced me to try a small bottle. Now I plan to buy an entire liter.

/Erik

pentaxuser · Jan 2, 2019

Erik Petersson said:
Hi Pentaxuser,

it appears that Dave's post has been removed.
/Erik

OK. This is a great pity as it was one of the best toned sea colours I had seen

pentaxuser

miha · Jan 4, 2019

Erik Petersson said:
Hi, thanks again for your help. Here's an example of the results I get when I gold tone my lumen prints with the Moersch.

View attachment 214086

This is stunningly beautiful!

Erik Petersson · Jan 5, 2019

miha said:
This is stunningly beautiful!

thank you miha, that is very nice of you!
It is really exciting to see how the toner works with different papers.

Sal Santamaura · Mar 11, 2019

I'm still using a liter of the no-longer-manufactured Fotospeed AU20 gold toner. At some point, however, it will be depleted. Does anyone have experience with how Moersch MT10 compares to AU20 in terms of concentration / speed of toning, as well as capacity per liter? The same question with respect to AU20 vs Tetenal Goldtoner. Thanks in advance for any insights.

Note that the usual discussions about mixing one's own gold toners, different types of gold toners, etc. will not be helpful. I've researched all those things and seek a replacement for the pre-mixed Fotospeed gold toner that will cool prints uniformly across their range of densities, then go back into its original container for later re-use.

miha · Mar 12, 2019

Sal, I wouldn't be surprised if AU20 and TT Gold were one and the same product. For sure AU20 was produced by Tetenal.

How to use Moersch mt10 gold toner

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