Selenium Toner compounding

[Claire Senft]

Does anyone on this forum compound their own selenium toner? I know that it requires good protective equipment and careful practices but I was wondering about pitfalls, difficulty in compounding, using the toner, and especailly the economics of DIY.

 

[Monophoto]

Many years ago I bought a kit from Photographer's Formulary. This kit include a small bag of metallic selenium powder. The instructions were to add this powder to water in a glass container, and then boil the water until the powder dissolved. The fine print said that the container should not subsequently be used for food, that the boiling should be done outdoors, and oh by the way, the selenium metal powder was fundamentally insoluble and so one should expect this process to take an extended period - perhaps hours.

Buying a bottle of KRS makes more sense.

 

[Ole]

Selenium toner is the one toner I will not try to make myself. I will happily make just about anything else (well - maybe I'll add the old mercury/gold toners to that list), but not selenium toner. Considering the safety precautions necessary, it just isn't worth it - you would need a full scale production facility to be able to produce it cheaper than Kodak does.

Ask me again when Kodak stops making it

 

[Fotohuis]

I am glad that someone who is aware about mixing chemicals and has some background about that also knows the limitation and danger about making selenium toner without a very professional safety equipment.

Do not try to make it, buy Kodak, Amaloco or whatever but do not play with your own health. (Same about the old mercury or gold toners).

Best regards,

Robert