Palladium toner turning my Kallitypes purple

Alan Davenport · Feb 6, 2007

Up to now my Kallitype process has been going very well. So as recommended I decided to tone my prints. I acquired 5 grams of Palladium Chloride from a seller on eBay. The little plastic container was labeled Mostly Metals (not the seller) and stated that it met ACS purity specs. I made up the toner with 4 g NaCl first and then 5 g PdCl2 per 50 ml solution. Everything went into solution. The powder was dark red-brown, as is the solution. The solution contains no sediment.

I am following Sandy Ks Kallitype process and his Palladium toner makeup. I tone before fixing. The print begins to tone immediately to a purple hue and reaches maximum intensity after a few minutes. I regret that I cannot post a print for you to look at.

I have seen a number of Palladium prints on the Web and I own one of Christian Nzes Palladium prints called Underwood II. It is beautiful!
What am I doing wrong? :confused:

Alan

rippo · Feb 6, 2007

hey alan. i can't actually be of help, because i've just bought some palladium and have yet to try it. if my prints turn purple though, i'll be very disappointed...i just posted about gold toning of kallitypes and how i don't like the purple color! sure you got pd and gold, right?

you didn't mention anything about citric acid. is that part of your toning recipe?

maybe not helpful, but at least i can commiserate.

Alan Davenport · Feb 6, 2007

rippo said:
you didn't mention anything about citric acid. is that part of your toning recipe?

rippo,

I first tried Gold toning but I didn't like the color either. My results were more pinkish with diminished contrast. What I am getting with the Palladium toner is a strong purple that with continued toning goes towards a more neutral color. I am also getting an increase in contrast.

Here is the Palladium toner formula:
Citric Acid 5 g
20% Sodium Chloropalladite 5 ml
Water 32 oz

Let me know what you get when you try Palladium toner.

Alan

Mark Fisher · Feb 6, 2007

I mixed up palladium and gold toner #2 per Sandy's instructions and they turned the prints the color I'd expect: warm brown-black and a very slightly cold black respectively. Is your water nearly ph neutral? If it is heavily alkaline, you may need extra citric acid. I have ph strips that I check my solutions....worth having and fairly cheap.

Alan Davenport · Feb 7, 2007

Mark Fisher said:
I mixed up palladium and gold toner #2 per Sandy's instructions and they turned the prints the color I'd expect: warm brown-black and a very slightly cold black respectively. Is your water nearly ph neutral? If it is heavily alkaline, you may need extra citric acid. I have ph strips that I check my solutions....worth having and fairly cheap.

Mark,

I bought a pH meter when I began working with Kallitype. I have checked my water and it is about pH 7.4. It is not buffered because adding just a "pinch" of Citric Acid drives the pH down to about pH 3.5.

I made up the Palladium stock solution with distilled water. I guess I'll have to clear my thoughts and review my process. And hope for some additional recommendations. Thanks for yours Mark.

Alan

rippo · Feb 7, 2007

cold black with gold toner? i used *distilled water*, citric acid and gold chloride. ten minutes of toning leads to a purple-black for me. odd. when i was using an alkaline gold toner by mistake, i got some nice blacks. and now i'm getting them again with my accidental-fix routine (see separate post). but purple seems to be the default.

sanking · Feb 8, 2007

Alan Davenport said:
Up to now my Kallitype process has been going very well. So as recommended I decided to tone my prints. I acquired 5 grams of Palladium Chloride from a seller on eBay. The little plastic container was labeled Mostly Metals (not the seller) and stated that it met ACS purity specs. I made up the toner with 4 g NaCl first and then 5 g PdCl2 per 50 ml solution. Everything went into solution. The powder was dark red-brown, as is the solution. The solution contains no sediment.

I am following Sandy Ks Kallitype process and his Palladium toner makeup. I tone before fixing. The print begins to tone immediately to a purple hue and reaches maximum intensity after a few minutes. I regret that I cannot post a print for you to look at.

I have seen a number of Palladium prints on the Web and I own one of Christian Nzes Palladium prints called Underwood II. It is beautiful!
What am I doing wrong? :confused:

Alan

Alan,

This sounds strange. My palladium toner is 5ml of the Palladium #3 solution from B&S, or 5ml of a 15% pallaidum chloride solution, plus 5 grams of citric acid in a liter of distilled water. The solution is a very pale brown in color, with no hint of purple. When toning in pallaidum, a kallitype print changes to a warm brown.

The gold toner is similar. 5 ml of a 5% gold chloride solution, plus 5 grams of citric acid in distilled water to one liter. In toning a kallitype in gold the color changes to blue/black.

Sandy King

Alan Davenport · Feb 18, 2007

sanking said:
Alan,

This sounds strange. My palladium toner is 5ml of the Palladium #3 solution from B&S, or 5ml of a 15% pallaidum chloride solution, plus 5 grams of citric acid in a liter of distilled water. The solution is a very pale brown in color, with no hint of purple. When toning in pallaidum, a kallitype print changes to a warm brown.

The gold toner is similar. 5 ml of a 5% gold chloride solution, plus 5 grams of citric acid in distilled water to one liter. In toning a kallitype in gold the color changes to blue/black.

Sandy King

Sandy,

I figured out the problem. Baserd on on my experience with Selenium and Gold toning on POP, I had the concentration of my toner too strong. With POP it is easy to lose control of both Selenium and Gold toners when they are too concentrated. They go lavender and purple respectivrly.

I diluted the formula below 1:5.

Citric Acid 5 g
20% Sodium Chloropalladite 5 ml
Water 32 oz

My prints now tone to completion in 5 - 8 minutes to a chocolate borwn.

Alan

Palladium toner turning my Kallitypes purple

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