Porcelain blue toner

[David Lingham]

I’m trying to find a formula for Porcelain blue toner. This is a two-bath toner with a bleach stage. It is mentioned in Tim Rudmans toning book, as being more controllable than direct Iron blue, and a lot more subtle. I remember years ago buying it as a made-up kit in the UK from Speedibrews. I was hoping to find a formula and make it myself from scratch.

I originally posted this within the toner thread, re posting as a new thread for more visibility.

 

[koraks]

Google turns up this: http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/archive/index.php/t-9489.html
Not sure if this is the same as the Speedibrews product, but it's at least an indirect iron blue toner. Possibly the Speedibrews toner uses a different acid in the toner itself than hydrochloric; I'm not sure if the product came as a powder stock or that concentrates were also supplied. Either way, in my experience, the species of acid can make a difference in image hue of the Prussian blue, so you may want to experiment a bit. Mineral acids tend to be a safer bet for iron toners than organic acids, although I've gotten good results with citric acid and less so (to my taste) with acetic acid. This was, however, all with direct iron blue toners. I suspect the chemistry of an indirect toner will be somewhat similar.

 

[pentaxuser]

Speedibrews, made by Michael Maunder made it and it still has a website. You can still apparently e-mail Michael Maunder from the site. If he is still going he might be prepared to give you the ingredients, especially if it is no longer sold so DIY is now the only option.

I had e-mail correspondence with him a good number of years ago about his C41 kits and found him very helpful

pentaxuser

 

[David Lingham]

Koraks, Pentaxuser, thank you both.