lith prints with oriental saegull

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I have just started to learn how lith print, but with much fustration! Having gone and spent a rather large sum of money on Oriental Saegull paper and Maco lith developer, i find that when i place, slide ,turn upside down, nice and gentely or even quickley put the paper in to the developer i get horible streaking richt across the print. I have read that most lith developers should be diluted more than the makers recomend, which helped slightly, but i still cant seem to get a streak free print. the dilution that was used increased my development to around 20 mins, which Mr Rudman says is about right. I have also tried warming the developer to 40C but this made no difference, i also added some "old brown" 100ml to 2 liters of working developer, which didnt help either.

If any one has had a similar experience or a solution i will be very gratefull for your reply.

yours Chris Tarbet

-- Chris Tarbet (c.tarbet@talk21.com), May 28, 2001

Answers

Just yesterday evening, I made a few lith prints on Oriental New Seagull myself, and, as chance would have it, using Maco's LP-Lith developer, too. But here the parallels end. Neither with Oriental New Seagull, nor with Maco Expo RN, nor with Forte Polywarmtone or Fortezo Museum, all of which I used for lith printing so far, did I ever find streaks. I wonder what might cause the problem you experience. But let me describe my procedure:

The developer is 80 ml part A + 1 l of water (plain tap) + 40 ml part B + 80 ml Old Brown. This is about 1+16. It is not a big volume, which means it will mature fairly soon, and will not last for more than a few prints. I work at room temperature, which is about 20°C most of the time, a little more during summer.

I slide the print into the developer face UP. Agitation is by gently lifting one side of the tray a centimetre or two and putting it down again. I do this about 6 times per minute, or every 10 s. (I don't bother to time this, though.) I avoid to handle the print during the developing time, i.e. it is left in there as I put it in at the beginning.

With 1+16 the developing time is about 7 to 9 min. When I snatch the print, I don't wait for the developer on the surface to drain, but drop it in the stop bath immediately. A fresh stop is used each time. I fix in rapid fix at film strength, using the two-bath method.

If the problem only occurs with the print face down, this might indicate it is a consequence of flow patterns in the tray, which are caused by the shape of the tray bottom (troughs or peaks).

Regards, Thomas Wollstein

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), May 29, 2001.


Thanks for your speedy reply Thomas, as i was expecting to have to wait aages for any responce. I followed the dilution that you recomended and heyy presto it worked fine. Thanks very much for your help on this matter.

Regards Chris Tarbet

-- chris tarbet (c.tarbet@talk21.com), May 29, 2001.


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