Kallitype Clearing

[ricardospanks]

I've noticed that sometimes when I hold a finished kallitype up to a bright light and look at the back of the paper I can notice dark mottling through the image in lighter print areas. Does this have something to do with improper clearing?

 

[Loris Medici]

Mask the borders and see if you can see tone or base color change in the coated but unexposed borders. This is the best test for checking the clearing stage; if there's tone or base color change then a) you're not clearing adequately (review your clearing regime) and/or b) you experience chemical fogging. (For (b): You may need to switch papers and/or acidify paper prior to printing...) Also, finally, your ferric oxalate sensitizer may have gone bad / old; test with freshly mixed sensitizer first, to eliminate that probability.

 

[donbga]

I've noticed that sometimes when I hold a finished kallitype up to a bright light and look at the back of the paper I can notice dark mottling through the image in lighter print areas. Does this have something to do with improper clearing?

Yes. I eliminated this problem by doing the following:

1) Follow development by 2 clearing baths of 3% citric acid solution. This solution needs to get tossed after processing 2 8x10 sized prints. Do not wash the print in water after developement until the print has been cleared in the 2 clearing baths.

2) I develop with sodium citrate and develop 2 prints per liter and then dump the developer.

3) Prior to toning wash the print briefly on both sides with running water.

4) After toning wash the prints briefly on both sides with running water and then fix.

Good Luck.

 

[MVNelson]

quick rinse after developing is okay if your water source is good and pH neutral. 2 prints per liter of any developer seems like a lot of developer toss when lots of kallitype developers when filtered will last until they are used up if not replenished. Maybe try sodium acetate or ammonium citrate or even NaAcetae/Nh4Citrate 50:50 ( may favorite that I stumbled on accidentally) . I think it was Sandy King (or was it Wolfgang?) who commented that if a paper does clear completely in 4 minutes switch papers .Kallitype seems to be even more sensitive to chemical fog and shows up paper incompatibilities more readily than other alt. processes. Papers like Arches plantine and COT-320 work well without jumping through hoops. I like Weston Diploma Parchment (new) because of surface but it gets a bit fragile on long wet times. Fixer matters a lot! I prefer the alkaline TF-4 for 60 seconds, causes no bleaching for toned or untoned kallitype prints and washes out very easily. I believe well made Kallitypes rival the best in alt process prints and encourage you to keep at it and have fun !

Miles

 

[donbga]

quick rinse after developing is okay if your water source is good and pH neutral. 2 prints per liter of any developer seems like a lot of developer toss when lots of kallitype developers when filtered will last until they are used up if not replenished.
Miles

It is more developer that I would prefer, but having expensive paper like Cot320 stain in't much fun either.

I came to the processing steps I listed after many many stained prints and wasted paper and toner.

Acid fixers can be made alkaline very easily, BTW.

So are you recommending a 50:50 developer of sodium acetate and ammonium citrate?

 

[MVNelson]

Hey Don I'm with you concerning the idea that developer is much much cheaper than paper and especially COT-320 ! The problem with kallitype and making suggestions concerning it is that the process has so many variants and is so susceptible to aberrations because of the wide range of papers people try to use. For example COT and Arches plantine seem to be fairly resistant to staining problems until they are pretreated more than maybe a gentle humidification in Kallitype. Whereas papers that need sizing and pH adjustments must be "tamed" . The developers in kallitype also cause problems if not kept pretty simple. By mistake I mixed about 50/50 NaAcetate with NH4Citrate and just I out curiosity went ahead and used it just to see. I was quite surprised at the neutral image tone that i wanted before toning. I also liked the quick clearing in citric acid bath and the final warm dark chocolate blacks I got with toning. I am reluctant to recommend this developer combination mostly because I don't or can't answer any of the questions about the chemistry involved. I'm am willing to accept the lack of knowledge with the trade off that I like the outcomes. Also with fixers, everything that I read was how quickly thiosulfate fixers will bleach kallitypes and quickly. When I read Wolfgang's account of using alkaline fixer that if anything maybe added a little tone richness I switched to TF-4 . I agree with you about rinsing prior to clearing especially if the pH of your water source is not known. My seems to be okay and therefore I rinse pretty good and the consequence is that the citric acid bath clears quicker and last a bit longer. Except for the Pd/Pt or Gold toners the chemistry is very and your point is very well taken..

Miles