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"Archival" wash aids


erik_ryberg

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Hello everyone,

 

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I realize this is a darkroom question but for some reason ever since I changed internet providers I can't get the rec.photo page and besides, folks here seem more tolerant of stupid questions, and the level of knowledge is about 10,000 times greater.

 

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My question: Is the label on the bottle of "Heico Perma Wash" to be believed? I finally, after several years of laboring with this dreadful hobby, have produced a negative I would like to print on fiber paper and while at the supplier found this bottle of magic which alleges to cut my wash times by hours. Specifically it claims with a two minute wash, two minutes in the Perma Wash, and two minutes in a final water wash I will have an archivally washed print. When I do this however my prints are slimy, so I have been washing longer but not really trusting this stuff anyway. I'd ask the guys at the shop but they are notorious liars who would say anything to get me to buy another chemical/paper/film/lens/camera. I'm afraid if I asked them I'd walk out their door carrying a $600.00 print washer AND a bottle of Perma-Wash. So I'm asking you. Thanks.

 

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Erik Ryberg

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Although it's true that such wash aids do help in print washing (and removing sensitizing dye from T-Max films) I don't buy the two-minute wash claim.

You can easily make a wash aid by dissolving a tablespoon of sodium sulfite in a quart of water. After fixing, rinse the print in the wash aid for a couple of minutes, the give a standard long wash in an efficient washer. By long, I mean an hour or so.

I don't know how short a wash you could get away with, but I don't take all the time to make a good print just to skimp on wash time.

Sometime in the past year there was a multi-part article in _Photo Techniques_ magazine titled "Mysteries of the Vortex"; perhaps you could find that article.

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The two minute wash might work with RC paper, but it sounds too short

for fiber based. I rinse my prints after fixing, soak for about 2-3

min in hypo clearing agent (Kodak's version of Perma Wash) and then

wash 30 min in a print washing tray. If I still like the print after

it has dried, I soak it in water again, selenium tone it, hypo clear

again, and wash 40-60 min. I will probably be dead before the prints

are.

 

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You can test for "adequete" washing. David Vestal discussed this in

detail in his book "The Art of B&W Enlarging". It has been out of

print for awhile. You may be able to get a copy from your library or

inter-library loan. The "Mysteries of the Vortex" articles in Photo

Techniques discuss testing and adequete washing also (two issues,

Jul/Aug of 1996 and Nov/Dec of 1996).

 

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You can get to rec.photo thru DejaNews (www.dejanews.com). It also

sounds like you need a new photography store. Good luck!

 

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Tom Gould (jgestar@aol.com)

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I remember reading an article several years ago, I believe in the

now-defunct "Camera and Darkroom" magazine or perhaps in "Photo

Techniques" (under its old name), in which the author performed tests

on the requisite wash times after using various clearing agents. If I

remember correctly he found that 15 minutes was adequate after using

Heico on fiber base paper. Just to be safe I use 20 to 30 minutes. Two

minutes is way too short.

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  • 7 months later...

I have been using Perma-Wash with my classes for sometime,however, i

never felt confident with their recommended times. When printing my

own work on fiber, I take a small piece of paper,unexposed, run it

through the development process and then wash it along with the

prints. Testing with Kodak's HPE test. I am washing in a tray with a

shipon with only 1 or 2 prints at a time. There are times when my wash

time is over 1 hour. Needless to say I am on the look out for a used

archival washer which i hope will decease my times. However, I would

rather not take a chance after spending time, engery and money by not

washing long enough. For me, the answer is to be sure to run a hypo

test no matter what the washing means.

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As it was explained to me, hypo clearing agent and/or wash aid doesn't

so much drastically reduce needed wash time as much as making it

POSSIBLE to wash the fixer out of fiber paper! With film, where you

don't have an absorptive substrate, the wash time needed can be as

little as a few minutes. With paper, all bets are off. The first

step to keeping wash times to a minimum is to avoid over fixing the

paper. If you use fresh fixer and heed the recommendations of Ilford,

for example, the fiber will become less saturated with stuff you have

to struggle to remove later on. I admittedly don't do a whole lot of

archival testing of my procedures, but I can say that over many years

of doing this, my images have neither disppeared nor changed color.

After treatment in Heico, my wash times are around 45 minutes in a

calumet archival print washer. The other thing I do is tone all my

work in selenium. I highly recommend this to not only make the print

more permanent, but also to enhance the richness of its color. Please

feel free to visit my website. http://www.razeichner.com

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I am no expert but my prints have never turned color nor disappeared.

I use FB exclusively. I use a one fix bath for two-three minutes

testing for exhaustion after every 5 prints or so, wash for 2 minutes

in hypo-clear/perma wash whichever I have on hand and then wash for

15-20 minutes in an old 18x22 tray using about a gallon of water every

5 minutes. I flip through them every few minutes. I then selenium tone

them and wash again for ten minutes. Period. Over washing has a

negative effect on the look and richness of your prints especially if

using FB papers. The chemistry of the wash water has a lot to due with

how well you can wash your prints. Most of you don't even test for

residual fix in your paper but rely on word of mouth or someone elses

method that used fix and paper 20-30 years ago and most of your prints

are going top die before you anyway. If you want a definative answer

then test your stuff. Test kits are cheap to death. And the kit lasts

a long time. I have never had any discoloration of my prints due to

under fixing or under washing. The longer you fix the longer it will

take to wash out. And how thick do you think that emulsion is anyway?

James

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