Clearing Time for Pt/Pd

How long should a pt/pd print stay in the clearing bath? Luis Nadeau

writes in his book to leave a print in the clearing bath for twice

the clearing time (or three baths for 5 minutes each), because a

print may look cleared to the eye, but still contain residue chemical

in the paper. He notes old pt/pd prints that have yellowed, and says

they were not properly processed. Richard Sullivan and Carl Weese say

to pull the print out of the clearing bath as soon as the whites have

cleared. Dick Arentz says the same as Sullivan/Weese, but he also

says to clear in three baths for 5 minutes each (which agrees with

Nadeau), so I am not sure where Arentz stands on this?<p>What do you

think? Has anyone found that a print became stained over time because

it was pulled out of the clearing bath as soon as the whites cleared?

Has anyone found that the image bleaches when left in the clearing

bath too long, including safer EDTA/sulfite clearing baths?

Well, although I have been only doing this for a short time here is my experience. I leave the clearing for 3 baths of 5 minutes, I figure this is one case where more time wont hurt. If you let your prints stand on the developer for a minute or two, they clear really fast, as a matter of fact I can "see" my prints have cleared with the water bath I do before the clearing baths. So there must be something to Nadeau's statement about prints looking cleared but not being so.

I have seen prints that become stained because I pulled them out of the developer too soon, and thus were impossible to clear, but never seen one where the prints becomes yellow after time, but then again my oldest prints are less than 2 years old.

I have cleared both with permawash and Hydrochloric acid, in either case I have not seen any bleaching in my prints with the 3 bath method.

Since I have had no problem with the 3 bath method I figure is better to be safe than sorry so I will continue to do it this way, after all I can wash the print long enough to remove any clearing substance easier than it can be to try and remove any left over FO compounds not cleared.

Hello william,

I always clear my platinum print this way:

first bath : citric acid 3% 5 minutes

second bath: Hypowash kodak for 10 minutes

then I rinse the print in water bath (to avoid creation of sulfuric gas) before the third bath of citric acid (5 minutes)

I get really god result with this method what ever the paper.

But the clrearing method depend on the paper. I remark that Arches platine badly react with hydrochloric acid, which is known to be one of the better clearing agent.

Some paper clear better in oxalic acid.

I also change my clearing depnding on the process: when I do a ziatype I give a longer first bath (10 minutes),but when I do a POP I let my print 3 minutes in my home made developer which is a little acid to help the ferris toget out at this step.

If you want to test your clreing method just print wuthout black border and you will see when the paper start to be white again. youshould also consider that the final wahsing also help to take out ferric salt.

Have nice printing

Christian Nze

www.c-nze.com