Shoul I use hardener?

[J J Kapsberger]

I somehow managed to brutalize my latest batch of APX25. Scratches galore. After the negs had dried I brushed them very lightly with an anti-static brush before inserting them into the sleeve. Bad idea?

Is it a good idea to use hardener to protect the emulsion from scratching?

 

[MartinP]

Hardener was dreamed up when emulsions were more fragile. The only things like that nowadays are the oldest of the Efke emulsions, possibly some of the IR films and maybe some chinese brands ?

Hardener makes it slower to fix and wash the film after development and means that you need to use a lot more water.

There is a thread in here somewhere about drying-marks and film damage, but basically don't wipe it with anything - especially not a squeedgee - just do a final rinse in distilled water (or at least de-mineralised) with wetting agent. Note, use photographic wetting agent not dish-detergent etc. That should then dry nice and clean in the appropriate dust-free environment (the shower booth usually).

For storage I have always used paper neg-holders because of the annoying static problems with the (cheap version) plastic ones, but I'm sure that everyone has different ideas. For dust get a blower as used for digital-sensors, rather than canned-air which can cause other problems due to the temperature-change within the expanding gas.

(Edited for a typo.)

 

[M. Valdemar]

Viagra works pretty good.

 

[MartinP]

Tsk, I always thought Viagra was a stiffener rather than a hardener ??

Never tried it yet though 😉

 

[Mackinaw]

35mm or larger format? Are the scratches on the emulsion side or backing side? Hard to believe that a light swipe with an anti-static brush would cause bad scratches.

I can tell you what I do which works for me. I process the film, stick in photo-flo for a minute, hang until dry, cut into strips and then put into the sleeves.

The only film that I have to be careful with is Efke 25. When wet, the emulsion is extremely soft. As for a hardening fixer, I haven't used this in years, though some folks swear by it.

Don't know if this helped or not, but I imagine other folks with chime in with their suggestions.

Jim B.

 

[MartinP]

Actually, it would be very sensible to try to isolate the cause of those scratches, as it could be something like a dusty/damaged camera or a reloadable cassette that needs to be retired etc etc.

 

[sepiareverb]

I use half the suggested hardener with my film fixer, I found my sheet film negs were curling, the reduction prevented this, and I've not had any scratching since.