The salted-paper session record

Two labs, four sheets, split by when each is filled in rather than by subject.

SP-1 goes on the coating bench. The two batch records at the top, then one line per sheet as each is coated: the salting, the dry mass before and after sensitising, and the difference between them. That difference is the whole point of the sheet — it is the only measurement that compares a float with a rod fairly, and it cannot be reconstructed afterwards from a dry sheet.

SP-2 closes the session out once the sheets are dry: the bath log, the two keeping tests with the hours they were coated and printed, and the coverage arithmetic that turns grams taken up into grams per square metre and then into silver per print. Both sheets belong to the salting and sensitising lab, which is the page that asks for every field on them.

SP-3 is the print up to the moment it leaves the frame — the sheet it came from, the exposure, and every inspection with its time and what you saw. SP-4 is everything after it: the baths in the order they were used, the three densities, the two deltas computed from them, and both Stage 9 tests. Both belong to the printing, toning, fixing and washing lab.

Print SP-3 and SP-4 as a pair, because the density read out of the frame on SP-3’s evening and the density read dry a day later on SP-4 are two ends of one measurement.

Two things the sheets ask for in a particular form, and one number they do not print

The Stage 9 results are asked for comparatively. Neither the residual thiosulfate test nor the residual silver test is calibrated on a hand-salted paper, so the field asks for the result against the untreated half of the same strip rather than against a printed patch. A comparative test that shows one wash regime cleaner than another is a result; an absolute reading on a paper the test was not calibrated for is an indication, and the sheet keeps the two apart.

Every density is read dry. The three fields are out of frame, out of fixer and dry, and the last is read 24 hours after the print is dry to the touch. Judging a salted paper wet is the commonest way to get the wrong answer twice, because the print looks strong wet and the toning decision was made on that impression.

No acceptance limit is printed for the fix-down or for the wet-to-dry change. Two to three stops is the expectation the lab page takes from the published literature, and it sits beside the field as a hint. It is not a limit this course has established, and a printed number gets believed.

Printing, versions, and why nothing on a sheet explains anything: see printable worksheets.

Pure Silver · The salted-paper session record

SP-1

The salting and sensitising session

One coating session, up to eight sheets. Filled at the bench as each sheet is coated.

Session, room and paperbefore

Date

Byinitials

Notebook page

Safelight or subdued light

Paper: maker, product, surface

Weightgsm

Sheet size

Room temperature, salting°C

Relative humidity, salting%

Room temperature, sensitising°C

Relative humidity, sensitising%

The two batch records — one per bottlebefore

Bottle	Substance and strengthper cent w/v	Weighed / made up tog / mL	Supplier and lot number	Water used	Batch number and date
Salting solution
Silver bath

The session log — one line per sheetas you go

Saltingsolution, method, time, temp	Dry mass beforeg	Sensitisingmethod, float time or drops, bath batch	Dry mass afterg	Taken upg, and the AgNO3 it is	Appearance drycolour, evenness, marks and where

Pure Silver · The salted-paper session record

SP-2

The salting session — the bath, the keeping tests and the coverage

The same session as SP-1, closed out after the sheets are dry.

The bath logafter

Starting volumemL

Starting strengthper cent w/v

Volume remainingmL

Batch number

Colour at the end, described rather than named

Kaolin added?no / yes

If yes, how muchg

Replenishment made: with what, and how much

The keeping tests and the coverage arithmeticafter

Hour the keeping sheets were coated

Hour K1 was printed

Interval agreed for K2

Storage conditions for both

Coated aream2

Solution per square metreg/m2

Solution per 8 x 10 sheetmL

Silver nitrate per printg

Pure Silver · The salted-paper session record

SP-3

The printing session — the print, the exposure and the end point

One print, up to the moment it leaves the frame.

The print, and the sheet it came frombefore

Date

Byinitials

Print number

Sheet number, from SP-1

Coating method of that sheetfloat / brush / rod / immersion

Saltingplain / citrate

Batch numbers, both solutions

Silver bath strength and batch

Float time or drop count

Hours between sensitising and printing

Exposure, and every inspectionas you go

Source, distance and dose, or date, time, sky and orientation

Elapsedmin	What the print looked like	Frame reopened?y/n

End point: what you saw when you stopped

Fraction of final darkness judged

Pure Silver · The salted-paper session record

SP-4

The printing session — the baths, the densities and Stage 9

The same print as SP-3. The densities are read dry, 24 hours after it is dry to the touch.

The baths, in the order they were usedas you go

Stage	Bath, strength and batch	Temp°C	Minutes	Prints this bath had already taken	What you observed
First wash, changes to a clear tray
Toner
Fixer, first bath
Fixer, second bath
Wash before the aid
Sulfite wash aid
Final wash

The three densities, and the two deltasafter

Read	Density, or steps counted	Patch or step read	Read against
Out of frame
Out of fixer
Dry, 24 hours

Fix-downdensity, signed

Fix-downstops, signed

Wet to drydensity, signed

Wet to drystops, signed

Stage 9 — both tests, comparativelyafter

Residual thiosulfate: the result against the untreated half of the same strip

Residual silver: the result against the untreated half of the same strip

Which strip each test was run on, and the wash regime that strip had

The light both were read in

Where the fields come from

Every field on these sheets is one a written page of the course asks you to record. Those pages are linked here, and the build fails if one of them stops existing.

Part 22 — salting and sensitising the paperData to record: two batch records, the session log one line per sheet, the bath log, and the two keeping-test sheets with their hours and storage.
Part 22 — printing toning fixing and washing a salt printData to record: the print and its sheet, every inspection, the end point, each bath with its strength and minutes, the three densities and both Stage 9 results.

What these sheets do not carry

The residual thiosulfate and residual silver tests have no calibration on an uncoated hand-salted paper, so the sheet asks for a comparative result against the untreated half of the same strip rather than for an absolute reading against a printed patch. An absolute reading on a paper the test was not calibrated for is an indication, and the sheet says so where it is written down.
No acceptance limit is printed for the fix-down or for the wet-to-dry change. The lab page cites two to three stops as the expected fix-down from the published literature, and that is a published expectation rather than a limit this course has established, so it is a hint beside the field and not a pass mark.
There is no field for the silver recovered from the first wash. The wash carries silver chloride and free silver nitrate, the course routes it to the silver-bearing waste, and nobody has established how much is in it, so the mass balance on this sheet closes at the sheet and not at the session.