Metol/Ascorbic Acid paper developer?

[eyesage]

After nearly two decades I am gradually working my way back to having a fully functional darkroom and will soon be in a position to be making prints again, if only contact prints for now. In my old practice I found I tended to print in spurts with long periods during which the paper developer would often go bad. The solution I found was to mix my own print developer, taking a standard formula and breaking it into two solutions, one just for the accelerator and the other for everything else, which would be combined just prior to use. This limited oxidation enough that I always managed to use the chemistry up before having to dump it because it had gone off.

I plan to use a similar strategy again once things get rolling. The trouble, I've found, is that in the intervening years it has become more difficult to import certain raw chemicals into Canada. Photographer's Formulary does not ship two key ingredients, hydroquinone and phenidone, outside of the continental US, and while it appears I could get these from other sources if I'm willing to put up with long delays I'd be much happier if I could use the easier to obtain ingredients that I already use for film developers, namely metol and ascorbic acid. (Other things I have on hand are sodium sulfite, potassium bromide and sodium carbonate.) I have found formulas for paper developers that use metol and hydroquinone and developers that use ascorbic acid and phenidone, but never metol and ascorbic acid. It may be that I just haven't looked in the right places yet but I've come up empty long enough it seems the time is right to try a bit of crowd sourcing. So in a nutshell what I'm looking for is a formula for, on ideas for producing a metol/acorbic acid paper developer that:

• Is neutral or warm toned
• Produces a fairly standard tonality (Dektol-ish)
• Uses either Borax or sodium carbonate for the accelerator
• Doesn't use other odd ingredients that will probably be hard to get in Canada
  (anything even slightly hazardous probably can't be shipped out of the US)

I'm open to suggestions from the peanut gallery.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Ascorbate developers are susceptable to the Fenton reaction. Iron (III) or copper (II) ions cause rapid deconposition of the developer. Dividing the developer into two parts really does not help. The salicylic acid and triethanolamine in the following formula are used to prevent any decomposition. This developer is long lasting and was developed for use in slot processors. For use dilute 1+5 and develop for 1.5 TO 2 min @ 20c.

DS-15 Paper Developer

Distilled water 750 ml
Sodium sulfite (anhy) 25.0 g
Metol 2.5 g
Salicylic acid 1.0 g
Ascorbic acid 20.0 g
Potassium bromide 15.0 g
Triethanolamine¡ 10.0 ml
Sodium carbonate (mono) 40.0 g
Distilled water to make 1.0 l

 

[eyesage]

I'm from Canada also. I get HQ, Phenidone, etc. from either Artcraft, Tech Chem or Bostick and Sullivan...

Thanks Michael, this might be the answer I need right here. From what you and Gerald have to say it sounds like coming up with an ascorbic acid developer with the shelf life I'm hoping for will create more difficulties than it resolves, but maybe hydroquinone isn't the problem it was starting to appear. Though I'm familiar with B&S I hadn't considered looking to them for something this standard as they seem more geared to alternative process stuff. Now that I've gone to the Artcraft site I realize I have visited before but somehow it never came up in my searches. As a bonus it looks like they'll also ship what I need to get back to mixing pyro developers.

In the mean time the formula you suggest here should get me by for now.

 

[miha]

Re longevity of Ascorbate developers: I purchased a bottle of Moersch ECO 4812 four years ago (August 2010), still have 150 ml or so of the concentrate which I have decanted in a small Shott Duran glass bottle maybe two years ago. I have used it last week again and it worked flawlessly.

 

[Zathras]

Hi Joe,

I have used the Metol version of Pat Gainer's Vitamin C Developer with good results. It isn't something that keeps well as a stock solution, but, a working solution is extremely easy to mix up as needed. The ingredients you need should be easy to obtain in Canada.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I obtained salicylic acid feom a local pharmacy for about $17 for 125 g. That's enough to make gallons of developer. Of the two chelating agents in DS-15, salysylic acid and triethanolamine, it is the most important since it chelates the iron (!!!) ions. However, triethanolamine is also readily available and not expensive. Try http://www.chemistrystore.com/Chemicals_S-Z-Triethanolamine.html for $10 a quart. This chemical is used in the making of soaps and lotions and there should be problem in shipping it.