Homemade emulsion help please

[Tin Can]

No I did not 'miss'

I gave him and many others options for emulsion making

I don't specialize

I try to enjoy my time

Randy, this link, and the next one on YouTube are about making film type emulsions from scratch. Anthony is looking for a recipe for sensitizing Salt and/or Albumen paper. (Unless I have completely misinterpreted his post)

[jnantz]

Hi Anthony.
The point of adding Citric acid to the AgNO3 solution is as a preservative once its been applied to the salted paper. There is no absolute requirement for adding the acid to the silver solution, especially if you plan to expose sensitized paper immediately after drying. (that's what I do.)
I would appear that you have the correct chemicals, having bought from two photography sources. However, one thing I have discovered is that sometimes Photographers Formulary chemistry has sat around a long time before being sold, and I've found that some materials go stale by the time I got them. But it sounds like you bought it from PF directly, so that seems unlikely.
How sure are you that your distilled water is really distilled water (no minerals)? Sometimes there are brands labeled as "distilled" water that are actually just deionized/demineralized if you look closely at the label. Minerals in the water can ruin a silver solution.
My only other suggestion would be contamination from the bottle you used. Reusing glassware that has previously been used for food substances is a gamble, no matter how well you rinse it out. Its better to buy new glassware specifically for each chemical and never use it for anything else, especially when making up solutions with Silver nitrate. Still, it seems odd that a tiny bit of vanilla contamination would result in the solution immediately turning to paste.

My suggestion is to start again, and omit the Citric acid.

+1

[Jim Noel]

I second Paul's answer.
I have made salt print using Fox Talbot's original formulae, as well as similar papers, since the 1980's. I have never added acid to the silver nitrate or to the finished print. Mine are still in excellent condition.

[Tin Can]

Tim Layton

Heated emulsion rods

Youtube has it all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ5rpGW_12Q&authuser=0

[Anthony O]

+1

Thank you all! Yes I'll re-mix the nitrate, and save the acid for stop bath when that's needed.

Paul, you asked about the water. I was careful to buy what's labelled as "distilled water," but didn't look closer. Re-inspection shows it's "Type III." Had to look that one up. It's the lowest grade, made by reverse osmosis. For cleaning glassware and other non-essential tasks it's fine. That said, it has worked very well for mixing up a wide variety of developers and other photo chemicals but I won't use it for this again. I'll procure a new, unused brown bottle and better water.

[Anthony O]

Wow, Tin Can, thank you for all the links! It's taking a while to get through them all.

[John Layton]

Ha! (equals "funny story")...back in 1987 I participated in a Platinum/Palladium/Albumen workshop with Rob Steinberg, at what was then called the Maine Photographic Workshops (now Maine Media Workshops) - and we were having a bit of a problem, in that nothing was working with our albumen trials...only very faint images were appearing.

With the group very frustrated indeed...it was on the third evening of that week, just after dinner, that several members, myself included, started to bombard one of the "failed" prints (which had been tacked to a wall outside the lab) with pieces of fruit from our "fruit cups" (that evening's dessert) and...lo and behold - bits of image began to appear where the fruit had landed!

Turns out that the citric acid content in the bits of fruit was the key to finally realizing "success," (also indicating that our batch of "laboratory grade" citric acid was defective)...and an overnight shipment of fresh citric acid saved the workshop!

Moral of the story? Always have some fruit around...because you never know when the fruits of your labors might depend on the labors of your fruit!

[Paul Ron]

here is a link to a forum that has a dedicated section just for emulsion making. some of the participants were employed by film makers as well as wrote books on the subject, they can answer your questions directly. you can also find classes for emulsion making.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/forums...ng-coating.93/

enjoy!