selenium toner: the fool's gold toner

[olive92]

Hi,

i've learned that Bostick & Sullivan made a selenium toner called "fool's gold toner" because it gave a gold toner apparence with a bluish black color to alternative photographic prints like Van Dyke or POP.

I'm not able to find the formula of this toner and it seems that B&S don't make it no longer and doesn't publish it no more.

Is anyone has the formula of this toner based on selenium ?

Thank you.

Sincereley,

Olivier

[koraks]

I read about it before, but have never really looked into it. Some googling suggests that it is either:
* Selenium (6g/l) and sodium sulfite (75g/l) (from James' book of Alternative Processes, page 383, accessible through Google Books)
* Selenium with sodium tungstate (original B&S formulation, ratios unknown)
* Selenium with borax (B&S reformulated)
* Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner with some borax added (random Flickr post)
Given the variety of options, it seems that selenium is relatively easy to coax into producing a cooler tone. But like I said, I never really looked into it or even tried it. Might be worthwhile to get some borax and give it a try with adding it to the stock KRST toner.

[Denny]

You could probably just call the folks at B&S and ask them about it. They're very friendly and helpful...

[olive92]

Hi,

yes i've sent a mail to B&S and i wait for their answer.

Thank you.

[ropel]

Quick research @Koraks! Seems interesting to give a fool's gold toner a try for Van Dyke. Keep us posted if you have any news for B&S @olive92

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Jim Noel]

I have been dealing with Bostick & SUllivan since they were basically operating out of their garage in Van Nuys. For a while, beginning in 1982, Dick published a very complete newsletter "Lumen". I have all of them, along with several early catalogs which were more than listings of chemicals. I just completed a re-reading. Nowhere do I find any mention of "Fool's Gold Toner".

[olive92]

Hi,

i've got the answer of B&S themself:

We did previously have the fools gold toner kit but no longer. I'll check on the formula, but we know Christopher James very well and you can trust his information.

So i give the formula from the book of Christopher James:

Na2SO3: 75 g
Selenium: 6 g
Water to make: 1000 mL

Olivier

[Andrew O'Neill]

I wonder if one could use KRST instead of selenium powder....

[IanG]

{QUOTE=Andrew O'Neill;1324294]I wonder if one could use KRST instead of selenium powder....[/QUOTE]

No.

You should use a fum cupboard when dissolving Selenium powder in a Sodium Sulphite solution, it also needs heating. It's quite an old Selenium Toner formula there's a few variations but they work well.

Ian

[Andrew O'Neill]

http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/blog/?p=160