In praise of Ansco 130's long, long life

I'm taking a short break from the darkroom this evening, the first time I've made prints in it's new, improved configuration, and I just had to post about the half-full gallon pickle jar of Ansco 130 I'm using to print from.

I mixed this gallon in July 06 and though I know it is a long lived formula, I was prepared to dump it and start over with fresh, thinking it was too far past useful life, however, curiosity decided that I had nothing to lose but some time and a bit of paper, if it was no good, so I made up a tray 1:1 and what'd you know, it's as good as the day I compounded it.

Beautiful deep blacks are coming up, very fast if overexposed, naturally, and though I'm just using Kodak RC papers for quick contacts, it's nice to see it at work. The Tri-X negatives, from HC-110 Dil. H seem good, but for some junk on a few rolls from some Photo-flo stupidly stored, use and discovered in use, that it had grown new friends in a very short span of time... ugh!

Tomorrow, I'll try some of the various FB papers I've gotten since my last printmaking session and see what it likes, I'm just bummed that I seem to have mislaid my old negative file book in interim between the old DR and the new; so much was there I wanted to print from, I just hope I'm wrong and didn't throw it out with some boxes last years' spring cleaning, there was some good stuff there.

How old have you been able to use Ansco 130? What's the record here for stock solution?

Eli

Two and a half years in a half full bottle? Gotta love Glycin's "staying power"

I've got a home brewed Metol / Glycin developer that's been waiting over a year for my new darkroom to be finished. Being an anal note taker in the darkroom, it'll be a hoot to pop in a negative from my last session and compare the old print to the new.

Congrats on your new digs!

Murray

I have some 18-month-old stock and I was considering pitching it. You've inspired me to give it a go!

i order about 7 gallons a year,
i used a gallon of stock that was 15 months or so old a while ago
worked great!

I haven't had that kind of luck. It does last a bit longer than 54-D, but not a lot longer than ID-72. For me, after about three months its brown and bad.

Funny this should come up. I mixed a gallon kit about a year ago, and have used it sparingly. Last printing session (3 weeks ago with regular chemistry) it was fine, but for some reason today when I was printing it was weak, so I had to give it up and use some Ilford Multigrade.
A year is good, though, considering the last third had sat in a gallon brown glass jar for the bulk of the time.

It's great developer, one that I should use more often.

- Thomas

I really did nothing special in storing this jar. I kept it in the dark of a seldom used closet and I used Saran Wrap as a seal between the lid and chemistry. Several months ago I move it to an open shelf under the new sink, but the DR is usually dark and lit only by common fluorescent light bulbs. Temperatures ran from 62-72 degrees, I sometimes shut the DR door during extra cold nights.

Perhaps it is nothing more than luck, but I'll use this stock till it fails and then mix new in smaller amounts and store in the large, dark heavy wine bottles I've been picking up after monthly gallery crawls. I may be printing more, but with hindsight, a gallon was a bit much to mix at one time.

Cheers

I'll add that I did use distilled water to compound this stock.

It keeps better with no air space and will keep a long time. When diluted, however, really fresh is best..Evan Clarke