Alkali fixer

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Graham, I used the alkali stop and fixer that you suggested, and the tonal result is up to what the flyer says: excellent greys! Although they recommended a different developer from what I've used.
One downside: what foul odour that fixer has, damn it! Laughing

Acid fixer does not smell so bad.
Is that really true that you can't keep used fixer for longer than 24 hours? Not even after a good stop bath?

P.S. I kept the prints in the stop longer than the 10 seconds recommended in the flyer. At the course we kept them in there 30 seconds. I hope that the longer stop time did not influence the life of the print.

GrahamNR17 · Expire: 2012-09-06

Yes, as cockney Londoner's like to say "it dunnarf pen-'n'-ink gov!" In other words, yes, it really stinks Laughing

But hey, you must suffer for your art Laughing

Life of the fixer varies. Acid fixers will survive between sessions well, but the alkali ones do tend to be shorter lived. I would suggest you bottle it after your session if you haven't made many prints, and then test it at the start of the next session. I used to keep the undeveloped film leader clippings in a drawer and use them to see if the fixer was dead or not. After a while you get used to how long a piece of film takes before it starts to clear, then you will know quickly if your fixer is knackered Wink

When I was in a commercial lab, we used a huge tray of fixer for a week, but that was strong acid fixer, and seeing as it was other peoples work, it didn't matter so much Laughing

But when I worked for a small lab with high-end clients, we used fresh alkali every day. Friday nights I stayed late to make the next weeks formula from dry ingredients - 7 different developers and three different fixers. How the made me suffer Crying or Very sad

But now it's your turn Laughing

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

GrahamNR17 · Expire: 2012-09-06

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04