. WARNING HOT SELENIUM TONER IS HARMFUL TO DARKROOM WORKERS EXELANT VENTILATION IS ESSENTIAL, if possible do it outdoors.
Regards Paul.
This is all interesting stuff on selenium. As someone who used it extensively back in the 80s and 90s - even mixed my own from selenium metal in the days before KRST was easily available in the UK - I've survived (relatively) unscathed, and I've used it hot as well.
My question to this forum relates to the fact that I've recently started fibre printing (and toning) again after a break of around twelve years. I'm using my stock of Kodak Rapid Selenium from back then and it still works fine. The availability of suitable papers is another matter...Ilford Warmtone and Adox Nuance certainly tone well though.
Can anyone comment on whether the currently available KRST is the same formulation (concentration) as it was ten years ago? One commenter says that the Maco product is a slightly higher concentration; has anyone done any comparisons as to whether or not this 1% difference produces any noticeable difference?
If it proved to be too much of an irritant then end of trial and back to the drawing board of installing a window blind or investigating the installation of a Filtaire 300 which while not the same as moving air ventilation is supposed to destroy fumes and odours by the use of extensive filters while sucking fumes in and pushing "defumigated clean air back out. pentaxuser
I use Ilford FB Multigrade glossy paper and i selenium tone with Kodak rapid toner at a 1:10 dilution for about 5 min. One large obstacle I have encountered with selenium toning is the presence of hardener in the paper fix. The hardener is necessary for the silver to harden on the paper(go figure), but it also literally creates a barrier on the paper, making any toning that is necessary after fixing impossible. My advice is if you are using hardener in your paper fix, then take it out. Again, when i tone i use Kodak rapid selenium at a 1:10 dilution for 5 min. 5 min gives a generous color shift, which is what I like, but you can always cut your time down or dilute at 1:15 if you aren't trying for that look. After you tone and rinse your print, have water with just hardener in it to harden the silver, since as i said before it is necesary for the archival state of your print. Mixing toner with HC doesn't do anything to help, rinsing the print for extra long doesn't help, and if you don't use fix hardener then I don't see why you would have trouble selenium toning in the first place. Sorry this is so long, I hope i can be of assistance.
Welcome, but please don't try to teach us to suck eggs in your first posts
snip
Ian
Apologies degodan9 for jumping on you like that. I should have been a little more thoughtful.
I truly appreciate your response Ian. Its good to find people in this world with some sense of morality. On that note, I also apologize for my comments. Thank you.
The only reason I was offended was because I am currently a college student trying to puruse a career in this thing that we call photo and its quite disheartening to have a piece of advice immediately shut down.
As for my post on hardening fixer, I see your points. I still do harden my prints but only after I tone, so I figured any help I could give the original poster of this thread might help. As I said earlier, I am a college student still learning and any input that can be given from anyone such as you gave helps. We all know a lot about just a little bit.
Nick
Hello.
I follow this thread and just bought some Kodak Selenium Toner.
I have some questions about it.
1. They say that the stock solution has to be used within 6 months. What is your experience with stock solution, stored in glas bottles without oxygen?
2. Does toning directly after printing affect the dry down effect?
3. Thy say that 1 liter 1+3 is for roughly 25 sheets of fibre paper. So 1 liter 1+10 is exhausted with roughly 3 fibre papers (20x25cm)?
Thank you very much.
Dietmar adding to what Paul's written, I use KRST and it has very good shelf life I have some that must be 4 or 5 years old in a partially full bottle and its still fine. My working solution keeps just as well, and I just top it up occasionally with fresh toner, I keep it in a plastic bottle.
Ian
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