metol and sodium carbonate developer

mcfactor

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I have run out of sodium sulfite and am left with metol and sodium carbonate (and potassium iodide). is there any developer than i can make with only these two (or three) ingredients?

In other words, what role does the sodium sulfite play in development and can i do with out it?
 

titrisol

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If you can also get a hold of vitamin C you can make really good developers
gadget Gainer may chime in if you also have that.

For the role of sulfite look in the silvergrain.org wikipedia, there is good info on the role of each component there
 

juan

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Unfortunately, the silvergrain website has a server issue and most of the information is gone for good.

Search here for information on D-23 and divided D-23. It's essentially a metol only developer with either borax or sodium metaborate as the accelerator. Can you buy borax (not boric acid) in the grocery store in Korea? It' sold as 20-Mule Team Borax here in the US. I'd use that if I could get it.

Otherwise, I'd try using the sodium carbonate as divided D-23. Maybe a couple of spoonfuls in a liter of water and do some testing. Soak the negatives in the metol solution for about five minutes, then transfer the negatives to the carbonate solution.
juan
 

gainer

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I had the same experience in 1994. I had on hand some ascorbic acid powder (purchased as vitamin C) and found that I could make a very good developer with Metol or Phenidone, ascorbic acid and sodium carbonate. You could also use sodium ascorbate. I wrote an article for Darkroom and Creative Camera Techniques called "Non Chromogenic Antiscorbutic Developers for Black and White Film."
You can start with 2 grams of Metol, 2 grams of ascorbic acid and 5 grams of sodium carbonate in a liter of water. I know this will work, but you will have to test it on something unimportant as it may be a little "hot". If I can find my file of my experiments, I will post them later.
 

PhotoSmith

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The D-23 formula also calls for Sodium Sulfite. I don't know how well it would work to substitute the solution B sodium metaborate in place of the Sodium Sulfite? You can try it, but I'd experiment on non-essential film!

The three accelerators mentioned have different alkalinities. My understanding is that Sodium Metaborate has roughly double the alkalinity of Borax, and Sodium Carbonate has double the alkalinity of Sodium Metaborate. So, you can adjust your departures from the formulas accordingly.

Good luck, and let us know how it works.
 

psvensson

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I bet you could develop film with just metol and carbonate, but you'd have to mix them just before development, and work out your own times. 3g metol + 6g carbonate to a liter would be a starting point.
 

gainer

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That should have been 0.2 grams of Metol per liter. That recipe is tried and true. If you have a set of standard measuring spoons, you can use 1/2 tsp ascorbic acid powder + 1/16 tsp Metol + 1 tsp anhydrous sodium carbonate in a liter of water. Developing time for FP4+ will be about 8 minutes at 20 C. 1/16 tsp is not standard, but you could use 1/8 with no appreciable difference.
 

gainer

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You could also read the APUG article on experiments with Metol and Ascorbic acid by some guy named Gainer.
 
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