Old neg rolls - how to rescue/straighten out?

[Bluesman]

Guys - I have a box of B&W 135 negatives. All of them uncut and nicely rolled up with rubber bands around them. This was done in the 1950:s. Looks like the photo shop processed the rolls, made a contact copy strip of it(I found a few of these strips), and rolled up the uncut negative film for storage.

Most of the rolls seem to have survived 50 years of not-so-correct handling & storage. I would love to have them scanned, but that would require unrolling them and cutting them to strips. I have no idea how to get them reasonably flat (and scannable in a flatbed scanner).

What to do? Soak them, let them rest in water for a while, hang up with a good weight at the bottom, hope for the best? Any chemicals recommended?

TIA for your advice /Richard

 

[colyn]

Soak them in photo flo solution for 1 minute then hang them to dry with enough weight to hold the strip straight till dry. After cutting into strips place in sleeves bought at any camera shop and place a weight on them to hold them flat for a few days.

 

[Bluesman]

Cool - thanks! But: will the film base still be flexible enough to accept the forced flattening? Any danger of the emulsion separating from the film base? Any warning signs to look out for during the process?
Cheers
/Richard

 

[colyn]

Cool - thanks! But: will the film base still be flexible enough to accept the forced flattening? Any danger of the emulsion separating from the film base? Any warning signs to look out for during the process?
Cheers
/Richard

I've used this process several times without problems. The photo flo will soften the emulsion then hanging till dry will help straighten the film enough to cut and place in sleeves.

 

[Bluesman]

Thanks Colin - that settles it. This is going to be interesting!

Cheers /R

 

[payasam]

I'd be careful about turning a dry roll wrong way out. What Colyn suggests should do the job. You might play safe by using distilled water.

 

[Bluesman]

I´m a bit wary of turning the film inside out. It´s old and brittle stuff...
I think distilled H2O and PhotoFlo is going to do the trick. I will try on one of them rolls, if it turns out OK in scanning, I´ll give the rest the same treatment. Thanks to all of you - this is going to be fun! /R