what to do with these old chems?

In the process of setting up my dark room. Still no sink. Haven't developed any film yet, but printing with old multigrade developer and jessops fixer onto the paper I inherited are giving surprisingly good results. I will buy some new chems once I get my sink made. (I have decided as I will only process small quantities, I will start with a bottle of LC29 for film development - comments?)

However, I have inherited some old chemicals.

2 glass phials of neofin red
1 sachet of johnson copper intensifier
1 sachet johnson reducer
a nearly full bottle of johnson glazing solution "for glazing prints on glass or ferrotype"

Can someone a) tell me how these are used (OK I can figure the developer) and b) what I should do with them.

I also have some glacial acetic acid . Can someone confirm the dilution for regular stop bath please.

All the chemicals you list have very long shelf lives, meaning you may want to keep them around just on the off chance you might use them in the future. They are, however, old and no longer made AFAIK. At least I don't think Johnson is around anymore.

Neofin Red was a high-acutance developer for fast films. Google or check out the Massive Development Chart for times and possible applications.

The Johnson copper intensifier is a bit more esoteric and now gone. It was used to intensify weak negatives and for toning. Check out http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Johnsons_of_Hendon/JoH_Chemicals.html for the original instructions. It seems to be similar to copper toners, so check them out too.

The Johnson reducer (sounds like the opposite of a lot of spam I get... is just good old Farmer's Reducer. Look for instructions and applications for the Kodak product or similar.

The glazing solution is for ferrotyping, i.e., drying fiber-base prints with the emulsion surface stuck to a sheet of polished metal (or glass) to achieve a high gloss. Still usable if you have a ferrotyping plate and want that look. You wet the print with the solution before braying it onto the plate.

And, IIRC, someone one this forum was looking for glazing solutions... which brings up another idea. If your chemicals are still in factory-sealed packages, they may be worth something as memorabilia/collectors items. Try listing them on eBay before you toss them.

If you do decide to toss, then dilute the chemicals with plenty of water and just run them down the drain. There should be nothing really toxic about any of them with the exception of the copper toner. I might do a little research on that one, or drop it by the hazmat collection center (which you could do for all of them if you liked) before discarding it down the drain.

As for mixing stop from glacial acetic acid: Standard practice is to make a working stop bath from glacial (100%) acetic acid in two steps. First, dilute the full-strength acetic acid down to 28% by mixing 3 parts of glacial acetic acid with 8 parts of water (do as you oughta, add the acid to the water). This you can label an keep as a stock solution (you can also buy 28% acetic acid). To make working solution mix in a ration of 48 ml of 28% acetic acid to 1 liter water.

That said, Kodak Indicator Stop is basically glacial acetic acid with an indicator added. They recommend mixing directly in one step at a 1+63 ratio, which works out to 1 oz. / half gallon or 16ml / liter. You should be able to do this with glacial as well.

Hope this helps,

Doremus

www.DoremusScudder.com

mr rusty said:

a nearly full bottle of johnson glazing solution "for glazing prints on glass or ferrotype"

Click to expand...

If you need to dispose of this one in a safe and environmently friendly manner, please feel free to send it my way

Thanks - that's helpful.

Paul - I was asking what I could do with the chems, not how to get rid ;-) , so I'll hang on to it for now as it might come in useful.............

If you ever acquire a print dryer with a glazing plate, the solution will be handy. If the Johnson stuff is the same stuff as I've seen listed elsewhere, one normally wipes a thin coat on to the glazing plate and then polish it off. A damp FB is then squeegeed on to the plate and then left on the dryer at a fairly high heat setting until it pops off. This gives the print a final high gloss finish if done correctly (I'm still working on that part).

The stuff I'm thinking of is typically a mix of beeswax in Turpentine - If the Johnsons has a turps smell about it, you don't really want to be putting it down the drain.