How long does sepia bleach and toner last?

[brian steinberger]

Tonight I went for my sepia bleach and it had massive flakes floating in it. Of course I only used it once. And it was about 2 months ago. It was in a bottle almost airtight. How long is this supposed to last? This is Kodak's sepia toner. Also, the toner didn't look too good either. I'm thinking of mixing my own bleach from now on. Anyone have any suggestions on good sepia kits? or should I just mix myself?

[Louie Powell]

My experience is that they will last quite a while. The major killers are exhaustion and contamination.

I had the interesting experience while mixing up a batch of Kodak Sepia a number of years ago. I mixed the bleach and bleached the print. Then, while it was in the rinse, I started to mix the toner, only to find that the toner envelope was empty! In desperation, I tried using Polytoner - other than the color, the results were fine.

I later wrote Kodak, and they acknowleged a QC problem, and sent me several replacement packages of the toner.