Spotty Sepia

[Doc W]

I tried sepia toning today for the first time. I had an unopened box of Berg Rapid RC Sepia Toning Solution that must be five years old at least (I got it from a darkroom sale five years ago so it is older than that). I have never used sepia toner before so I followed the instructions very carefully. It seemed to bleach just fine, becoming a ghost of the original image. When I put it in the toner, the image went very spotty - little circles which were lighter than the rest of the image - and it never got very dark. Most of the detail of the original image was lost.

Is this just because it is ancient?

 

[MattKing]

Did you make sure that your print was well and truly wet before you bleached it?

If so, the toner might have deteriorated.

 

[Doc W]

The print was very wet. I washed it for about 10 minutes before toning. I think it must be just deterioration, as you suggest.

 

[Ian Grant]

The toner is a simple Thiourea/Hydroxide type and is unlikely to have kept well in solution, it's a warmer sepia than a Sulphide toner and not as dark. With some toners you need to print slightly darker than normal to compensate..

Ian

 

[RauschenOderKorn]

There are many options why a toning process can fail, like under- or overfixing, lack of washing or old chemicals, among many others.

The Berg Sepia toner has already mixed the alkali and toner-part and therefore has a limited lifetime. As you say, the toner has been sitting on the shelf for some years, probably it has seen better days ...
Thiourea-toners (non-smelly Sepia toners) do not redevelop the picture to the same darkness as before with some papers, so you might also need to print darker.