gold toner turning purple

[photojeff3200]

I make my own toner following Ellie Young's Gold Borax recipe. 1000ml distilled water, 6gm borax (I use 20 mule team) and 12ml of 1% gold chloride. The first batch I made toned my salt prints beautifully. However, after a while I noticed the glass bottle i keep the toner in and the toner itself turning purple (I am using a grain alcohol bottle). I don't use the toner very often and today there were bits of contaminants floating in the solution. Does anyone know why the toner is spoiling? I keep it stored in a dark cool place.

Thanks
Jeff

[Bruce Schultz]

I'm not sure working gold toner has a very long shelf life of more than a few days? I could be wrong, and would like to mistaken since Gold toner is pricey. I wonder too about the 20 mule team and maybe it has someunlisted components?

[sanking]

I have used the following formula for vandyke and kallitype. It would most likely work with salted paper. If you use one-shot the stock solution is stable for up to a few months. For greatest consistency the toner should be used as a one-shot solution, using the minimum amount of fresh solution possible, and then discarded after use.

Gold Toner

Distilled water 750 ml
1% Gold Chloride 50 ml
1% Thiourea 50 ml
Tartaric acid 0.5 g
Sodium Chloride 20 g
Distilled water to make 1000 ml

The gold thiourea toner gives a very attractive purple/brown/blue tone and adds a slight increase in contrast. The toner keeps well and retains its working characteristics even after several months in storage.

Sandy

[photojeff3200]

Thank you both for the reply. I'll buy some industrial grade borax before trying your recipe Sandy. I really love the deep chocolate/black tone the Ellie's recipe gives. However, Sandy how much toner should I use for one shot on a print that is 12"x12"? Do I brush it on?

Thanks a lot
Jeff

[Jim Noel]

Have you tried your batch to see if it still works? It might.
The formula I use is similar to Sandy's, but I make it as a 2 solution, the gold solution is separate, and mix the two when ready to print.No problem with longevity.

[Joe Smigiel]

For Van Dyke Brownprints, albumen prints, and salted paper prints, I've used borax gold toners as well as Clerc's thiourea gold toner and IMO, Clerc's looks and performs better and has an extended shelf life compared to the borax formula. This is Clerc's formula taken from Wynn White's Vandyke Brownprinting article on unblinkingeye.com:

Gold Chloride (1% solution) 12.5 ml
Thiourea (1% solution) 12.5 ml
Tartaric Acid 0.12 gm
Distilled Water to make 250.0 ml
Sodium Chloride 5.0 gm

Same stuff as in Sandy's formula but different quantities and perhaps proportions. (I'm being lazy and don't want to do the math.)

[sanking]

Thank you both for the reply. I'll buy some industrial grade borax before trying your recipe Sandy. I really love the deep chocolate/black tone the Ellie's recipe gives. However, Sandy how much toner should I use for one shot on a print that is 12"x12"? Do I brush it on?

Thanks a lot
Jeff

For toning I use a flat bottom tray, slightly larger than the print to be toned. I tone just before fixing, with the print wet so it will be flat in the tray. There is no exact amount of toner that I can specify because the amount of gold needed varies according to print shadow density. Prints that have a lot of shadow density need more toner because there is more silver to replace with gold. However, on the average I use about 50 ml of the gold toner with a vandyke for a print area of about 8X10", and discard the toner after it has done its job.

As the print is toned the color (of a vandyke) will change first in the highlights, then the mid-tones, and finally in the shadows. The color transition will be from whatever you begin with, to purple brown, and finally to a bluish-black. If the shadows stay purplish in tone it means that you have no toned to completion. By that, I mean that the gold has not replaced most of the silver. You may like the purplish brown color, or any intermediate color, but for maximum image permanence it is best to replace as much of the silver as possible with gold, and this is indicated by bluish-black color. If you don't see toning to completion after about 5-10 minutes, you can add 25-50ml more of the toner.

It has been a very long time since I made a salted paper print and the color transition I described above for vandyke may not be accurate for salted paper.

Sandy

[tgtaylor]

I've been split-toning my salt prints with Gold-Ammonium Thiocyanate and Platinum. The gold toner must be applied first and only for a short time (~ 1 to 2 minutes for me) and the Platinum until I see what I like. The gold toner doesn't last so I prepare it immediately before processing the prints and, since I only expose and print 2 sheets in a day (3 max) and gold tone each print for a short time, I mix 50mL of gold toner for the session. All of my prints are 8x10 contact prints which I guillotine-off the edges to conserve both the gold and platinum. Like Sandy I use a flat bottom Cresco tray to tone using 50mL of toner for each print. The gold toner is discarded after each session but I recycle the platinum toner which I mix in 100mL quantities and use it to exhaustion.

Thomas

[koraks]

I have toned a couple of van dyke browns, small prints (5x7"). I used maybe 20ml of working strength toner, further diluted 1:1 with water. It slows down the process, but makes it easier to keep the toner flowing over the print. I've also reused the toner for up to three prints, after which it is almost completely exhausted. The second and third print would take very long to tone and the final one wouldn't tone to completion, which is alright if the resulting tone pleases you. I use the Wynn formula btw.