Source for Amidol in Continental Europe

Jarin Blaschke · Sep 16, 2021

Hello everybody:

I’m an American who will be in Prague for several months and would like to continue my printing here. I contact print on Lodima and Lupex paper. In the US, I get my English Amidol from ArtCraft. Does anyone know where to get quality Amidol on the continent?

Thanks!
Jarin

Lachlan Young · Sep 16, 2021

Sigma Aldrich (Merck), Alfa Aesar and the like supply it - you could try Fotoimpex and see if they are prepared to order it for you. The CAS number is 137-09-7.

Rudeofus · Sep 16, 2021

The one source of photo chemistry in EU is Fototechnik Suvatlar. Yes, the Amidol is not on his current price list, but an inquiry might still be worth the effort. Bellini Foto in Italy also offer raw chemistry, they also do not list Amidol, but may still be able to offer it on request.

Rudeofus · Sep 16, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
Sigma Aldrich (Merck), Alfa Aesar and the like supply it - you could try Fotoimpex and see if they are prepared to order it for you. The CAS number is 137-09-7.

They most likely have the compound, but they do not sell their wares to private customers, nope, not even Sodium Chloride. They will not even ship to a residential address.

Rudeofus · Sep 16, 2021

michael_r said:
I think that's why Lachlan suggested trying to source indirectly through a retailer such as Fotoimpex. Moersch might be another potential avenue if Suvatlar or Bellini can't get it.

Saban Suvatlar is the raw chem dealer for Moersch. The link to his contact details are provided on Moersch's web page. AFAIK Suvatlar does not even have his own web presence.

AgX · Sep 16, 2021

michael_r said:
Interestingly in Canada we now have a new outfit called Alphachem that not only has a huge standard catalog but will source virtually anything that isn't in the catalog.

Quite some chemicals over here are banned from sale to private persons or only under certain restrictions, which may lead sellers to give up on private buyers for good.

Lachlan Young · Sep 16, 2021

michael_r said:
I think that's why Lachlan suggested trying to source indirectly through a retailer such as Fotoimpex. Moersch might be another potential avenue if Suvatlar or Bellini can't get it.

All of them should be able to get it - Adox/ Fotoimpex was simply the first that came to mind - and Moersch used to offer an Amidol developer, so Suvatlar is likely able to get hold of it too.

koraks · Sep 18, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
All of them should be able to get it

Is that something you assume, or know as fact? Yes, you'd think that Fotoimpex c.s. would be able to get hold of Amidol. They question is - will they actually be able to, especially if it's one potential buyer asking for maybe 1 kg. In my experience Amidol is a bit hard to source - much harder than most other photochemistry, including CD3 and CD4, which are also more or less single-purpose chemicals. The problem with Amidol is its specific use (AFAIK it has no other active application than as a silver image developer) combined with extremely low demand and poor keeping properties. The fact that companies like Sigma and Merck list it in their catalogs doesn't even say much - it only says "we'll make you some if you order enough of it at a high enough price". The number of producers worldwide is likely very small, perhaps small enough to count on the fingers of your hand.

Suvatlar is by far the best and to my knowledge *only* bet in Europe at this point. He undoubtedly gets his from China, but I don't know his source.

bernard_L · Sep 18, 2021

koraks said:
Suvatlar is by far the best

yes !

and to my knowledge *only* bet in Europe at this point.

... http://disactis.com/store/fr/21-chimie-gnrale https://keten.com.pl/
In two cases, Suvatlar and Keten, following an inquiry about a product absent from the list, I received either an "extended list" or an invitation to ask what I need. See what I mean? However, Suvatlar's extended list does not have Amidol.

Colonial · Sep 18, 2021

Hi Jarin,
I bought amidol just 2 weeks ago at this address, it's in Italy:
https://www.laboldtech.com.

Lachlan Young · Sep 18, 2021

koraks said:
Is that something you assume, or know as fact? Yes, you'd think that Fotoimpex c.s. would be able to get hold of Amidol. They question is - will they actually be able to, especially if it's one potential buyer asking for maybe 1 kg. In my experience Amidol is a bit hard to source - much harder than most other photochemistry, including CD3 and CD4, which are also more or less single-purpose chemicals. The problem with Amidol is its specific use (AFAIK it has no other active application than as a silver image developer) combined with extremely low demand and poor keeping properties. The fact that companies like Sigma and Merck list it in their catalogs doesn't even say much - it only says "we'll make you some if you order enough of it at a high enough price". The number of producers worldwide is likely very small, perhaps small enough to count on the fingers of your hand.

Suvatlar is by far the best and to my knowledge *only* bet in Europe at this point. He undoubtedly gets his from China, but I don't know his source.

I think it's much more likely that Suvatlar etc are buying from the usual business-to-business chemical suppliers/ manufacturers rather than sourcing directly from a specific site of manufacture - one of the less visible issues at play here is that Merck/ Sigma, Alfa Aesar (previously Thermo Fisher) and all the rest make some of the chemicals they sell, while distributing others (even though they may come from apparent competitors) without any real clarity as to who makes what - and what is further subcontracted out for manufacture to small-scale specialist fine chemical/ organic synthesis concerns. Amidol and even some of the more specialised products like Glycin do have other uses within scientific research outwith photography and dyes - whereas CD-4 seems to exist more within quite specific photography and dye markets. A lot of the time it may simply be a case of a company approaching an organic/ specialty/ fine chemicals supplier and saying 'are you prepared to produce X kg of Y?' - none of these chemicals require novel synthesis.

AgX · Sep 18, 2021

Colonial said:
Hi Jarin,
I bought amidol just 2 weeks ago at this address, it's in Italy:
https://www.laboldtech.com.

Thank you for that great source. It even is an off the rack article with them.

25g @ 50€

Nicholas Lindan · Sep 18, 2021

michael_r said:
... Alphachem [in Canada] ... I was able to get ... 4-chlororesorcinol ...

Now that peaks my interest. Funny how it is hard and expensive to get yet is in every permanent hair coloring product.

Are you going to use the resorcinol for DIY Microdol-X experiments?

Lachlan Young · Sep 18, 2021

AgX said:
Thank you for that great source. It even is an off the rack article with them.

25g @ 50€

25g is one of the standard packaging quantities from Sigma etc. Silverprint also sell it.

AgX · Sep 18, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
25g is one of the standard packaging quantities from Sigma etc. Silverprint also sell it.

Sigma-Adrich does not sell to consumers.
The OP explicetely is looking for a source in continental Europe.

Lachlan Young · Sep 18, 2021

AgX said:
Sigma-Adrich does not sell to consumers.
The OP explicetely is looking for a source in continental Europe.

I can't make it any clearer. Any retailer/ photochemical seller who has a business relationship with Sigma or Alfa etc can get the 25g or 100g packaging of Amidol and then sell that on to their customers at their own chosen markup. That is all that Laboldtech, Silverprint, the Photographers' Formulary etc are doing.

koraks · Sep 18, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
A lot of the time it may simply be a case of a company approaching an organic/ specialty/ fine chemicals supplier and saying 'are you prepared to produce X kg of Y?' - none of these chemicals require novel synthesis.

You don't start a batch of 10kg of amidol with all the labour involved in setting up the process and qa. That's my point. It's not a commodity and neither is it a high-value item. In the west it's only interesting for small-scale enterprises that barely rise above the hobby domain. China is a different story; economic parameters are different there.
If Suvatlar gets his from a dealer, a distributor or from a plant doesn't matter in the end. If you track it down, it's likely all that on the market is from a small handful of sources

AgX · Sep 18, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
I can't make it any clearer. Any retailer/ photochemical seller who has a business relationship with Sigma or Alfa etc can get the 25g or 100g packaging of Amidol and then sell that on to their customers at their own chosen markup. That is all that Laboldtech, Silverprint, the Photographers' Formulary etc are doing.

Yes, but in Continental Europe there are not many of these willing to do so for consumers (and I already hinted at one reason). And the aim of this thread is to locate them. And this italian firm is the very first positive case.

Rudeofus · Sep 19, 2021

Lachlan Young said:
I can't make it any clearer. Any retailer/ photochemical seller who has a business relationship with Sigma or Alfa etc can get the 25g or 100g packaging of Amidol and then sell that on to their customers at their own chosen markup. That is all that Laboldtech, Silverprint, the Photographers' Formulary etc are doing.

The fact, that Sigma Aldrich offers Amidol, is proof, that this product is made with adequate quality assurance and offered in the west. Neither Suvatlar, nor any other chem retailer is forced to resell it to you, though. Sigma also doesn't give blank cheques to recipients of its products to distribute them at will. There are lots of regulations for toxic compounds, e.g. Pyrogallol, p-Phenylenediamine, Selenium, ..., and I have frankly no idea, how their sale to amateur end users is even legal.

Note, how even a very common compound like HQ instantly disappeared from Suvatlar's price list after the new EU regulation took effect.

pentaxuser · Sep 19, 2021

Well, the plain fact is that a U.K. company, namely Silverprint will sell it to ordinary customers so somehow it gets it from somebody in what I'd assume is a relatively small order as they cannot be many Silverprint customers ordering this stuff. So it can be done as Lachlan has pointed out.

If it can do it I wonder why others don't? It will sell to customers outside of the U.K. by the looks of things

So problem solved, surely?

pentaxuser

AgX · Sep 19, 2021

Unless if the OP reveals why he explicitely twice referred to continental Europe.

Furthermore I explained why other dealers may not can do so even if they wanted to. Rudeofus too just hinted at this. The situation of selling chemicals in Europe become complicated.

At the moment even something seemingly banal as N2O in consumer conversion is under discussion.

pentaxuser · Sep 19, 2021

Perhaps Jarin will contact Silverprint to find out how difficult or easy it is to order Amidol from Silverprint and then we can all know. I'd have thought that by now Silverprint would have said in its delivery section what the problems that U.K. to EU orders are now we have left the E.U. but I can see no reference to what those difficulties might be

pentaxuser

mohmad khatab · Sep 19, 2021

O'Brother ,,
I told you before .
There is a merchant in Cairo who has half a kilo (English-made). He wants to sell it for 1,000 Egyptian pounds (approximately 60$). This is what this merchant told me, I bought from him before that (CD3) and it was very good quality.
If you have any friend or relative in Cairo, I can give you the phone number and address of that merchant.

Rudeofus · Sep 20, 2021

AgX said:
Unless if the OP reveals why he explicitely twice referred to continental Europe.

Since Brexit took effect, even the shipment of something as mundane as books turned into a monthlong nightmare. I can fully understand, why people on the continent are reluctant to order from the UK.

Jarin Blaschke · Sep 20, 2021

Hi everyone - thanks for all the interest! I’ll first try the Italian firm, then the other ideas and I’ll let you know how I get on. I am actually back and forth between Prague and London a bit over the next couple months. If someone has a UK source, I wonder if I can travel with a bit of chemistry in my checked bag…. :/

J

Source for Amidol in Continental Europe

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