Gast Hello... I’m a photographer from San Francisco, CA, and I now live and work in Berlin. I’ve been working with pyro for 16 years and am in urgent need of methanol and sodium metaborate. If anyone could give me a tip, I’d be very grateful. My email is seumas.coutts@gmx.net Thanks S-
rherz Hi Seumas, Have a look here: http://www.omikron-online.de/cyberchem/ They might have what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, I’m not a chemist, so I can’t match up any alternative names for the same chemical. Best regards, Robert
Roman Hello! ‘Metol’ is also called ‘Metol’ in German; ‘sodium’ is ‘Natrium’, so ‘sodium metaborate’ (Kodalk?) is ‘Natriummetaborat’ in German. Some photographic chemicals are available from Brenner (www.allesfoto.de), though at high prices; perhaps the address mentioned above is cheaper? Roman
rhf Brenner probably gets his supplies from Suvatlar in Hamburg; at least you’ll get it fresher there. Pyro is available ready-made at Lotus, but I wasn’t particularly impressed. Be sure to get in touch with Wolfgang Moersch – to put it mildly, he might have a better idea :-))))
uworischki You can buy chemicals (even in small quantities) from "Werkstätten für Chemie und Photo GmbH" at Am Salzufer 20, 10587 Berlin, tel. 030-3911001 or via www.wcp-laborhandel.de. I’ve already bought silver nitrate there at a very reasonable price. I’d just give it a go. Uwe
Gast Suvatlar offers fair prices; for larger quantities, you can also negotiate the price with him. His Metol is top quality! He also stocks Kodalk. It’s possible that the product available here in Europe is of a different quality to that in the States? In my experience, the solution based on the PMK formula becomes supersaturated and breaks down after a while – regardless of the supplier. It still works, but given the small quantities required, I’m not entirely comfortable with this if you’re aiming for reproducible results. If you’re interested in a stable version, I’d be happy to share the recipe. wolfgang@moersch-photochemie.com
cfb_de Hi Seumas, Why not get in touch with Martin Jangowski? He posts regularly on the Phototec forums and has a kilo of Metol at home. I’m sure he’ll be happy to give you some. You can find the link by Googling “Martin Jangowski Phototec”; I don’t want to directly mention our hosts’ “competitors” here. Happy Whitsun, Franz
