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Category: Darkroom

For darkroom enthusiasts that wishes to experiment a little bit, mixing their own chemicals is perhaps one route to explore.

To begin with, the No 1 resource of information on this topic is 'The Darkroom Cookbook' by Stephen G. Anchell. A short review of this book (in Swedish) can be found here and on many other places on Internet. To find general information on a chemical, I have found that Wikipedia is an excellent choice, or perhaps  http://webapps.kemi.se/amnesregistret/.

However, getting hold on the chemicals that is needed is not as easy (any longer).

And if you are living in Sweden...

From my experience, getting hold on raw chemicals is not straight forward if you are living in Sweden. There are some major providers such as e.g. Sigma-Aldrich and Merck, but they only accept orders from organizations. There are also companies such as Sagitta, but they also do not sell chemicals to private persons (Although they do have other nice lab equipments which you can buy from there) .

The best option seems to be to buy from e-bay. There are several traders within EU that sell chemicals in small amount and to private persons. Some e-bay stores even specialize in chemistry for photography. Be aware though, there might be import- or other restrictions on the chemical you are looking for. Swedish official sources to find more information on this  include www.tullverket.se and www.kemi.se (Kemikalieinspektionen). Kemikalieinspektionen also provide a list of usefull databases, see http://www.kemi.se/hitta-direkt/databaser.

 

Depending on the chemical you are looking for, I have found that your ordinary grocery- or hardware- store might be an option. Through some detective work I have been able to identify the following chemicals (in "pure" form") in ordinary daily use products.

 

Name (EN) Name (SE) CAS Trade Name Where to find For use in
Acetic acid Ättika    Perstorps ättika grocery stores Stop bath
Sodium thiosulfate Natriumtiosulfat  7772-98-7 Nitor sänker klor (#226844) hardware store Plain hypo (i.e. fixer)
Sodium bisulfate Natriumvätesulfat (=natriumbisulfat, NaHSO_4)  7681-38-1 Nitor sänker pH (#290205) hardware store e.g. in stop baths
Sodium carbonate Natriumkarbonat  497-19-8 Nitor höjer pH (#290208),
also as ordinary washing soda (SE "målarsoda")
hardware store Accelerator for use in developer
           
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