Salt Printing/Gum Bichromate Kits

[tflynnphoto]

Hiya,

Just wondering if any of you lovely people may be able to advise on something. I'm a Photography Technician at a school and where I've dabbled in the past, I'm not well versed with alternative processes. I found these two brand new kits today (see below) and having googled the processes I'd love to give them a go. My problem is that they're both very much expired. The Salt Printing kit has a date of 2021, and the Gum Bichromate a date of 2018. I was wondering if it's worth the effort to even attempt using them because of this, or if they should sadly be disposed of without even opening. Thanks in Advance!

 

[Rick A]

It's not like you have anything to lose (except your time) by trying them. Of the two, salt printing is easier. Basic salt printing is (1) coat a sheet of watercolor paper with a 2% solution of salt, let it dry. Then (2) coat the salted paper with a 12% solution of Silver Nitrate and let it dry. 3- contact print a negative under UV light source then wash in water followed by fixing. These kits usually make the processes more complex than necessary.