----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Cassino"
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] Film Hardeners
Last year I really fell in love with Classic Pan 200, and shot a ton of it. It hasn't been available for several months. In response to a recent email to classicpan.de, I've learned that the company that makes it is insolvent, hopes to be back,maybe will be in the spring.
OK - so I have 5 rolls of this film in the freezer. I used a hardening fixer with it (Kodak Rapid Fixer with hardener mixed in per directions.) These days I'm shooting APX 100 and 400, with no hardener in the fixer.
I figure I should use up the CP 200 I have - does anyone know if it would work to do a separate hardener bath? Since I usually don't use the hardener, I have a few bottles of it on hand. I'd like to just mix it up and run the film through it - I'm guessing after fixing, but am not sure if this would work or, if it would, where in the process to insert the hardening bath.
I did some searching on the internet and found some comments that suggested this would not work. The comments said that the hardener needed an acid solution to work. That makes me wonder - if I slipped a bit of hardener into the stop bath, would that do the trick? I go through fixer pretty regularly, but since I pre-rinse film before applying the stop bath, my stop solutions last forever. I'd rather sacrifice a little stop bath than a little fixer.
Otherwise I'll just use the CP200 sans hardener and try to be careful with it...
If you are using a non hardening fixer, you can just add hardener to the fixer if you like.
Most films (I don't know the one in question) come pre hardened from the factory, and so don't need extra hardening.
Hardening also makes the emulsion much harder to wash.
As a rule, I use a non hardening fixer.
William Robb
