Tetenal gold toner and argyrotype/vdb

mrtoml · Thursday at 11:19 AM

I have managed to get a litre bottle of Tetenal gold toner. Has anyone tried it with argyrotypes?

I am wondering about dilution, and whether to use before or after fixing.

There is a lot of unclear and contradictory info online.

Thanks in advance.

mcfitz · Thursday at 1:29 PM

I have a litre of Tetenal gold toner and use it but not for the argyrotypes you mention, which I know nothing about as a process so bear this in mind with what follows.

What I can tell you is, the bottle is working strength, no dilution.

I've used the gold toner AFTER selenium toning my fibre based prints developped in plain old fibre paper developer, no special printing process.

Between the selenium & gold toning, the prints were thoroughly washed, then toned in the gold toner, fixed again, hypo clear was used, then washed again.

My reference for this procedure is from Tim Rudman's excellent toning book.

mrtoml · Thursday at 3:59 PM

I have that book but I don't think it would apply to all alt processes necessarily.

I don't think you can use selenium on vd browns because it can bleach the print. Some people say to dilute normal working strength toners (for normal photographic papers) when using toners for alt processes so I am not sure whether I need to dilute the tetenal for argyrotypes.

glbeas · Thursday at 10:49 PM

mrtoml said:
I have that book but I don't think it would apply to all alt processes necessarily.

I don't think you can use selenium on vd browns because it can bleach the print. Some people say to dilute normal working strength toners (for normal photographic papers) when using toners for alt processes so I am not sure whether I need to dilute the tetenal for argyrotypes.

It can be done. The instruction Ive seen say to over print and use very dilute selenium toner. Let it bleach back to normal tones and watch the highlights closely.

Adam W · Friday at 1:07 PM

I think that toner is like Clerc's gold thiourea toner, which I use on my Van Dyke Brown prints before fixing. I keep it in the toner under subdued light until I get the effect I want, then fix and wash.

mrtoml · Friday at 4:08 PM

Adam W said:
I think that toner is like Clerc's gold thiourea toner, which I use on my Van Dyke Brown prints before fixing. I keep it in the toner under subdued light until I get the effect I want, then fix and wash.

So there is no need to dilute? I know it's a thiourea toner, but I can't find the exact formula anywhere.

Guillaume Zuili · 2025-09-06T15:20:33-0400

mrtoml said:
So there is no need to dilute? I know it's a thiourea toner, but I can't find the exact formula anywhere.

No dilution use it full strengh

Guillaume Zuili · 2025-09-06T15:23:38-0400

It is relatively cheaper to make it yourself.
Gold prices went up to the roof but still.
And different formulas will give you different tones.

mrtoml · 2025-09-07T05:25:23-0400

I've just found a source of gold chloride so I will make my own next time.

Thanks for all the replies.

Tetenal gold toner and argyrotype/vdb

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