Retouching negatives with pencil?

[CharlesWest]

Use a number 1 pencil or softer! You won't get any graphite on the negative with harder leads.

[Vlad Soare]

My pencils are numbered according to the European system, with 4B being the softest and 4H being the hardest (I believe the series goes all the way to 9, but 4 is the maximum I have). Which one is number 1?
I seem to be able to write on the back of the TXP with any of them, even with the 4H. On the other hand, on the back of any other negative none of them leaves much of a trace, not even the 4B.

Later edit: I've found more details here. It seems #1 is the B. Well, my B doesn't really work with anything but TXP.
It would be nice if we could find a replacement for the Kodak Retouching Fluid.

[Robert Hall]

Pencils here (the US) run from 9B ... 2B HB B F H 2H ... 9H, but they vary from company to company a bit as well.

[Drew Wiley]

Peter - my sister has a huge Hurrell print of Jane Russell, and it has all the signs of the
studio doing a masterful job of retouching the neg. Sometimes it's fun to encounter
some hole-in-the-wall bookstore on a rainy day and discover the old photo and graphic
guides from that era. Quite a few darkroom tricks have been forgotten.

[Vaughn]

I have a few Kodak Negative Retouching Pencils -- never tried them, but they seem relatively soft.

[jnantz]

don't add hardener in your fixer, it will make your
retouching a lot easier.

[RichardRitter]

Dose any one know of a source for the retouching lacquer?

[Robert Hall]

Don't know what that is, are you talking about the red dye? Or is this something different?

[RichardRitter]

Its also called retouching dope. You put it on negatives that do not have the tooth to take pencil retouching.

[Robert Hall]

Here are a few formulas:

#1

4 gr Sandarac (tree resin)
20 ml grain alcohol
1/2 ml chloroform
3 ml oil of lavender

(above sounds like a similar varnish I use on wet plate)

#2
Monkhoven's retouching varnish for negatives:

shellac is places in a saturated solution of ammonium carbonate for 24 hours.
The solution is then poured off and replaced by an equal amount of pure water and the fluid is boiled with constant stirring until the solution is complete.

The proportion of shellac to water should be 1:8

#3

2 grams Shellac
14 grams mastic
14 grams Sandarac
10 ml ether

Disolve resins in ether and add to 10ml of Benzole (Benzine and a Toluene mix, and good luck finding either. Toluene was/is used and a drug inhalant.)

And last but not least Janassens formula:

#4

10 gr Sandarac
2 gr Camphor
4 ml turpentine
3 ml oil of lavender
60 ml grain alcholol of specific gravity 0.83

Let it age for a day after use before retouching.

Please no one kill themselves with these mixtures. Fair warning