Where to buy sepia toner in Canada?

Hi,

Does anyone know where I could buy sepia toner (specifically containing thiourea) in Canada? Is it available in any retail stores, do you have to buy it online, or do you have to go and buy it in the US?

thanks

Try The Camera Store in Calgary:http://www.thecamerastore.com

Or how about http://www.eightelmphoto.com/

The Fotospeed or Kodak odorless sepia toner kits should be available somewhere in Canada.

If you're not afraid of mixing up chems, a thiourea sepia toner is very very easy to mix from scratch. You only need 4 chemicals. And the best part is you can have a few different bleaches at different dilutions as well as toners with different amounts of sodium hydroxide to give you different colors. I highly recommend it!

I don't recall specifically about sepia toner or specific ingredients, but last I was in my local store, Photo Central, they had a number of toning products - might be worth giving them a quick shout to ask. (Their website is currently mostly digital stuff, but don't be fooled - they have a significant amount of analog product including darkroom equipment and chemicals in-store.)

Nice guys, the staff actually has a clue (they do have a couple of digi-only guys, but even they know more about the analog side than your average camera store staff).

I understand they have something of a presence here, as well - hope to hear more from them soon (hint, hint)

Twilight Lamentation said:

Hi,

Does anyone know where I could buy sepia toner (specifically containing thiourea) in Canada? Is it available in any retail stores, do you have to buy it online, or do you have to go and buy it in the US?

thanks

Click to expand...

Where are you located?

Mail order and mix your own - JD Photochem

I order all sorts of stuff from Claire, and her service has always been good, just like from John DeIre before her. Ocassionally she goes on vacation, but then again why shouldn't she, and her e-mail bounces a reply of when she will be back.

I always am told if what I want will take a while to get, or is out of stock before the order is shipped. She will ship via Canada Post parcel post if you ask.

I have bought such things at Henry's (Ottawa store) although it usually has to be ordered. In my experience, they don't take too long.

I've tried phoning all of the places suggested here, and they all only sell sulphide-based toners. The thiourea-based ones do have slightly different properties (such as the lack of rotten egg smell), so I'm surprised that they're not available here. Any other ideas?

thanks

PM me if you are interested.

Where in Canada are you?

I could weigh out the needed chemistry, and mail it to you for you to mix.

I happened to have my copy of the darkroom cookbook in my bag today. It lists #145 Formulary Thiorea Toner.

The bleach is quite typical - 50g Potassium Ferricyanide, 10g Pot Broimide, 20g Soduim Carbonate (mono) per litre - and is re used until it turns from orange yellow to blue.

The redeveloper is a 2 part, mixed just prior to toning as a one shot for that session:

Part A - a strong base stock solution 100g/L of sodium hydroxide. I use NaOH as a 40%W/V stock that I make up ahead of time so that it is cold by the time I get to it to use it. The NaOH might be a challenge to mail, for as dry it will easily and quickly suck water out of the air and turn into a lump of carbonate. I would suggest hitting the hardware store for a bottle of Red Devil Lye, from the drain cleaner section, to source this stuff locally. Home Hardware can order the stuff if they don't have it in stock. Read up on working with this stuff - it can easily eat the skin right off you, and at the very least leave a nasty burn.

Part B - Thoirea stock solution 5g/L

To use redeveloper, mix 56mL of each to water to yield final volume of 1L, i.e 1:1:16

Let me know of your needs if interested.

Mike Wilde said:

Where in Canada are you?
I could weigh out the needed chemistry, and mail it to you for you to mix.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the offer, though I'm not actually trying to buy the chemicals myself. I'm doing some research on the photographic industry in Canada, specifically about what chemicals are used by hobbyists and where they're available. I didn't initially include thiourea on my list of what chemicals are used, but someone said that it is used in photography in the US, and suggested that it might be used in Canada as well. Hence me trying to figure out whether or not I, as a member of the general public, could buy thiourea-based toner if I were into photography.

Sorry for not mentioning this earlier! I just didn't know how photographers would react to outsiders asking questions, so I didn't want to get chased out of the forum or anything!

There is nothing intrinsically different enough between the US and Canada that would make a particular chemical used in one country but not in the other, distribution difficulties and EHS regulations aside.

Well, in that case, I'm sure the most common chemical used by photographers in both Canada and the US would be ETOH in moderate quantities

And all this time I thought it was Dihydrogen Monoxide, although ETOH has added benefits.