Van Dyke Brown toning options

[Uncle Goose]

After a long stay with Cyanotypes I felt it was time to move up towards something different so I chose Van Dyke Brown as a next thing to do. Getting the Silver Nitrate was an initial difficulty because a local shop asked 300euro for 100gr of Silver Nitrate (way too expensive for me). So I decided to make my own by just buying pure silver and use some Nitric Acid I had still standing around, this way it was only 60euro instead of the 300euro. I tried a few VDB prints already and all seem to go well but then I read that unless they are toned they apparently don't last long, you need to tone them to keep them good (or so the story goes). OK, quick search around I saw you had to do that with gold/platinum/palladium toners which not only are impossible to find in Belgium but also seem to cost a truckload of money. So I wonder if there is any other way to tone them in a more economical way? I read a comment in and old threat that you could tone them with mercury (I have a decent quantity of that standing around collecting dust) or is it possible to tone them in something like Ilford selenium toner? The Selenium toner I can still get for reasonable price but the gold/platinum/palladium route is just out of my current budget at the moment. Anybody an idea?

 

[Uncle Goose]

Wow, 79 views and nobody knows? I must have asked the impossible question here.

 

[Jim Noel]

VD Browns are a silver process and can be toned with selenium, or anything else which tones a silver gelatin print. Gold is the long time standard and it produces beautiful tones, but selenium works well. Even tea and coffee work.
As for longevity, I have some more than 20 years old which were never toned and show absolutely no fading.

Have fun!

 

[Uncle Goose]

Thanx for you reply Jim.

 

[davido]

Selenium toner contains ammonium thiosulphate (or fixer) which will can fade a vandyke. They say it can be used at high dilutions, I've never used selenium with vandykes. You need to try Gold toner. It does look quite stunning! If you use a flat bottom tray, you can use very small amounts of toner ( 25ml for an 8x10). That way it's really not that expensive. I buy my gold chloride 1% solution from B&S (100ml is about $60). The recipe I use is Clerc's Thiourea toner - 12.5 ml of gold chloride will make 250ml of toner. You might even get a few prints out of that 25ml of toner? However, I just use it once.

 

[Hexavalent]

Ditto on using Clerc's Thiourea toner - it looks wonderful. Pt toner is nice.. but oh the $$$$

 

[Uncle Goose]

Yeah, the price is the problem for me at the moment, going back to study and being single at the age of 37 leaves me financially crippled so that's why I want to try to find toning options that are less costly.

I wonder if it's possible to use following products to tone a VDB:

Lead Acetate: Got a bottle of that standing around collecting dust, since it's soluble in water (unlike many other lead compounds) I wonder if it's possible to use it. Yeah it's poisonous but I can collect the waste and turn it in at a waste disposal centre, so no harm to nature

Lead Nitrate: Rather easy to make but unfortunately also poisonous.

Mercury Chloride: Since I have quite some mercury standing around this is an option but due it's toxicity I would rather go another way, it would be my last resort.

Copper Chloride: Perhaps the most safe way? Not too difficult to make yourself and while toxic not as dangerous as the others.

Any insight?