silver nitrate what %?

[eddie gunks]

hey,
what % do i need for photography work? i see two listing. one for 99.95% and one for 99.99%. seems pretty close to me....but what do i know? i would hate to make a mistake at such an early stage.

eddie

 

[Jim Noel]

What are you going to do with it?
If alternative processes, either should be OK.
If you want to coat your own film or paper, I refer you to PE or some other more knowledgeable person.

 

[eddie gunks]

sorry. just do alt printing. van dyke, kallitype etc.

thanks

 

[smieglitz]

Eddie,

Rumor has it that chemical companies make most compounds to reagent grade specs, but only bother to test batches that need to actually be of such high purity. It is the testing that adds the additional costs to ensure purity. While they probably don't produce every compound in this manner, and some may require additional or special procedures to reach reagent grade, I don't think you'll see any practical difference in the silver nitrate. The purity of the lower grades is probably more than needed for your purposes. As an aside, the purity of stuff we use today is probably much, much higher than what was available to most photographers 150 years ago when they were figuring all this stuff out.

 

[RobertP]

Exactly Joe, What they used back then wasn't probably anywhere near technical or reageant grades we use now.

 

[eddie gunks]

cool! thanks! saved me $15 per 50g!