Old negs cleaning

[pedro.m.reis]

Hi.
I recently went to my father's home and discover some negs from when i was a baby (about 33 years ago).
I would like to clean them for a fresh scan but i dont know how. Some negs only have a few dust but others realy nead more cleaning. In the negs is ingraved "Kodak Safety Film" and others "Agfa Safety Film" so i realy dont know what kind of film is, besides that is color film. Is it safe to "wash" them in water? What is the proper
way of cleaning this negs?
Thanks.

 

[hoot]

Hi, Pedro. Welcome to RFF.

"Safety film" is a designation that no longer has any significance. Back in the old days, negatives were made of highly flammable cellulose nitrate. Then, in the 1960s or so, the film base was changed to cellulose triacetate, which was not flammable and hence called "safety film". Nowadays, all film is "safety film".

To clean my negatives, I dab a microfiber lens cloth in surgical spirit, which is a composite of ethanol (i.e. drinking alcohol) and methanol. You can buy surgical spirit in large pharmacies. Since it is prone to evaporate quickly, it should be kept in dark glass bottles and secured tightly.

Hope this helps!

 

[varjag]

I clean the negs with alcohol too, albeit using either pure ethanol or vodka. Methanol is not desirable as it can deteriorate the film base.

 

[Poptart]

Have you tried Windex? It's new and improved!

 

[dmr]

Have you tried Windex? It's new and improved!

Maybe a naive question, but how likely is it that a solvent like alcohol, Windex, etc., will dissolve or otherwise damage the emulsion of either negative or slide film?

 

[Poptart]

Hmm . . . a one in three chance?

 

[ch1]

Hi.
I recently went to my father's home and discover some negs from when i was a baby (about 33 years ago).
I would like to clean them for a fresh scan but i dont know how. Some negs only have a few dust but others realy nead more cleaning. In the negs is ingraved "Kodak Safety Film" and others "Agfa Safety Film" so i realy dont know what kind of film is, besides that is color film. Is it safe to "wash" them in water? What is the proper
way of cleaning this negs?
Thanks.

Does your scanner do ICE? If so, perhaps a quick air puff or a soft wipe with a soft cloth or brush would be best.

 

[back alley]

you can also just re-wash them in water and photo flo and then let them dry.

joe

 

[RML]

you can also just re-wash them in water and photo flo and then let them dry.

joe

That would be my preferred method.

I'm not so keen on using alcohol on my negs. I tried and it didn't give me the results I wanted. I had to rub quite hard with the cotton swab, leaving cotton threads everywhere and not removing the dust and crud very effectively.

 

[Toby]

I would put them on a developing reel, wash them in water and the add wetting agent, the tricky bit is attatching film clips without damaging the negs......

 

[varjag]

Maybe a naive question, but how likely is it that a solvent like alcohol, Windex, etc., will dissolve or otherwise damage the emulsion of either negative or slide film?

One of my books mentions that wood alcohol can eat the acetate base of the film. The stuff that you can drink however should be safe to your film.

Press photogs here often used a 90% ethanol as the final rinse, to make the film dry up quickly.

 

[pedro.m.reis]

Well .. i think i'll try the wash+photo flo in some portion of that negs that are unusable to see what appens. Then the alcool...
My scanner doesent have ICE so i'm to a photoshop intensive self-course 😀

 

[Stephan]

Well .. i think i'll try the wash+photo flo in some portion of that negs that are unusable to see what appens. Then the alcool...
My scanner doesent have ICE so i'm to a photoshop intensive self-course 😀

How do you dry the negs once you've washed them ? If you dont already, use a piece of soft damp "peau de chamois" (cant think of the name in english right now looks like this : http://www.sea-abrasifs.com/fr/image/pro/produit/frina/chamois.jpg ). Its not an antistatic cloth, its less abrasive. Be carefull using an antistatci cloth that you dont rub the (dry) film to hard, I screwed up some BW negs of a concert last monday doing that 😉