So, 1 gram gold chloride in enough distilled water to make 100 ml of volume
would be 1 per cent? A lot of formula call for .2 per cent. So just make a
working solution of 1:5 from the stock solution.

December 30, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

Nice pretty grams of bright yellow gold
chloride sell for around thirty five dollars.
Dissolve one in a hundred grams of water...

A liter would be ten times that cost, so
three-four hundred per liter.

I'm not exactly sure of the exact chloride of
gold they sell. Trichloride?

Anyway, two to four ml of the 1% gold
solution suffice for one 16x20. I only use
one liter to gold tone a 16x20, it's not
really a stretch to make it cover. I do it
for ten minutes, and I warm the solution to
the same temperature as my selenium toner,
about body temp. Frankly, I don't see a
difference between more or less gold in the
solution, or a temperature effect between
room and warmed up, or a difference depending
on length of time in the solution. It just
goes neutral black. I gold tone after fairly
complete selenium toning (KRST 1+5 for ten
minutes).

At $35 per gram, it's about thirty-five cents
per ml, so cost is about seventy cents to a
dollar and a half per 16x20 (for the gold).
There is also the thiocyanate to consider,
and its price will vary widely depending
where, when etc.

I've been figuring an overall cost of about
three Canadian bucks per 16x20 that I gold
tone. Of course, only the ones I deem worthy
get the gold, so the cost is strictly
directed, at least.

Also, the solution of gold lasts
indefinitely, and the thiocyanate is stored
dry in its bottle until needed, so it lasts
too.

I don't mind the cost because it's an easy
solution to make up and use, and it is used
only on a fraction of my prints. The look of
the print is definitely changed, so when I
like it, it's worth it. Plus, of course,
there is the undeniable snob value, what with
how much better my prints become than any of
the other prints at the Salon ...

I find it's perfectly easy to use one liter
of one-shot gold toner (as above) to tone a
20x24 sheet.

I haven't experimented with using the same
liter of toner on a number of successive
prints. Possibly the unit cost could be
reduced that way.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
website: www.heylloyd.com
telephone: 416-686-0326
email: portrait@heylloyd.com
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