Does anyone use a chemical rinse after they do their develop - stop - fix - rinse on PAPER?
Does anyone use a chemical rinse after they do their develop - stop - fix - rinse on PAPER?
water is a chemical
I use only Iiford PQ aka Uninversal developer by the gallon, easily reused
Powder Food Grade Citric Acid Water Stop, it dies quickly
TF5 Fix for Paper and Film, long lasting, so I count, no cost
I wash in verticle slots
Filtered Hass temp control
I use KODAK ONLY Hangers for Diy Gas Burst
I try real hard to make things simple, repeatable and extremely safe
No stink, no poisen, no dust, no spotting
Tin Can
Lots of people do. Water rinse, treatment in hypo clearing agent (I use Permawash, but easy to mix something that works) then water rinse, then dry. The need for a long wash can be cut down even more if you use a rapid fix.
if you use the ilford method of rinsing film and paper,,, how much advantage do you get? sure the theory it pulls extra chemical out of the paper is nice, but is there a measurable increase in PAPER print longevity or in how the dried print looks
Since I use an archival fixer (TF5), there is no need for a secondary clearing treatment - the negative or print paper goes straight to the water wash.
There are no differences in the aspect of the prints, but a good washing is key for conservation.
If you want prints that last for centuries use toning (sepia, selenium, etc. ), knowing that the toning must be complete.
If you don’t like toned prints use ADOSTAB (was Agfa Sistan). It transforms the silver grain to avoid its combining with the sulfur, the main cause of print degradation.
On my side I don’t think that none of my descendants in three or more generations will be interested on my pictures.
Fiber-base prints are the ones that need the most care in washing (rinsing, if you prefer ). RC papers and film do not really need the extra steps that fiber-base papers do.
Typically, a wash aid, like Hypo Clearing Agent is used before the wash to accelerate the washing of the print. Sometimes, a stabilizer, like Sistan/Adostab is used post-wash as well.
The Ilford sequence makes use of a rather long treatment in wash aid (10 minutes) after an initial short wash and then followed by another. This last wash is longer if toning is employed. The traditional Kodak method was a short rinse after fixing followed by a few minutes in the wash aid and then a longer wash.
Some, who use alkaline fixers, feel that a wash aid is not necessary at all, since the pH of the fixer makes the residual thiosulfates easier to wash out.
In all of the above cases, adequate time in the wash is needed to ensure optimum permanence. How long is adequate depends on a number of factors and should be determined by testing for your particular situation.
The risk of not adequately washing your prints is image degradation after a while, usually caused by the retained fixer residues being attacked by sulfur in the atmosphere. The effect is yellowing and staining and is irreversible.
If you don't want your fiber-base prints to degrade over time, then process them adequately, whichever regime/strategy you choose. There are tests for both residual silver (adequate fixation) and residual hypo/fixer (adequate washing) that you can easily do to determine if your chosen regime does the job. The ST-1 or selenium toner tests are for residual silver, the HT-2 test is for residual hypo. Components and directions for these tests are easily found with a little Internet/forum searching. I recommend both of them.
Best,
Doremus
The use of a hypo clearing agent (sulfite ion) with fiber prints simply shortens the total wash time and/or reduces the amount of water used. That’s all. A hypo clearing agent helps remove thiosulfate/silver thiosulfate faster by a process called ion exchange. But water will ultimately do the same job. It just takes longer.
With fiber papers the fixing process has a lot to do with washing efficiency. So, if you use the Ilford archival print wash sequence for fiber papers (including washaid/hypo clear) do not neglect the instructions with respect to fixing.
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