If you ever spill fixer onto a towel, make sure that that towel doesn't make it into a load a laundry.

All my whites smell like a blasted darkroom now.

Collect up the affected whites and give them a long wash, just as you would a print, including multiple changes of water (every five minutes, and wash for an hour). The fixer is bound to the cotton fibers, and will take a long time to wash clear (though it likely would be helped by pre-washing in a strongish sodium sulfite solution).

Wash the towel in salt water, then another in plain.

After discovering that myself, I decided the concept of the "darkroom towel" was just not a good one, and I've reverted to paper towels in the darkroom.

oxyclean, just one scoop, followed by a fabric dryer sheet in the drying cycle. Works wonders for even towels that have been used to clean a dog sprayed by a skunk.

Well, this is good info! I have been gathering up my darkroom towels, not really sure what to do about getting them clean. I was a wee bit concerned about putting them in with the regular laundry, so I've got a small pile of them building up! :o

FYI old towels relegated to the darkroom are a MAJOR source of airborne lint. The hard restaurant style cloth napkins are better, but I'd still like to find a cost effective non linting wipe.

FYI old towels relegated to the darkroom are a MAJOR source of airborne lint. The hard restaurant style cloth napkins are better, but I'd still like to find a cost effective non linting wipe.

Those new microfiber clothes, the kind that look like chamoise's

FYI old towels relegated to the darkroom are a MAJOR source of airborne lint. The hard restaurant style cloth napkins are better, but I'd still like to find a cost effective non linting wipe.


It wasn't relagated to my darkroom. It was relegated to be the spill cloth under my uniroller in the tupperware bin I run it in in my bedroom. :)

Collect up the affected whites and give them a long wash, just as you would a print, including multiple changes of water (every five minutes, and wash for an hour). The fixer is bound to the cotton fibers, and will take a long time to wash clear (though it likely would be helped by pre-washing in a strongish sodium sulfite solution).

How 'bout some hypo clear in the rinse cycle? (just kidding!)

rewash with 50ml Rodinal in the machine. That should replace the nasty smell to someting more pleasing :)

G

Since thiosufate is used to remove chlorine from water in fishtanks, a light bleach of your whites might neutralize the hypo and the smell with it. Anyone know for sure?

I would think a sulfite solution or hypo clearing agent might be the thing.

I realize we are talking darkroom towles, but just a tip about washing things you don't want in the regular laundry. I use a 5 gallon(us) bucket and fill it 1/2 way with water and washing solution of your choice and put the lid on tight. Place in the trunk or back of your car and as you drive the motion creates an agitation effect. I use this on location when I have fallen in mud or a stream and my clothes are covered with mud and who know what else. Work great for me.

Just a tip.

p.s. yes, I tend to get dirty while trying to find the right angle for a photograph.

Gary

Is it bad that my first thought was, "but I like the smell of fixer." ?
I also switched to paper towels (made of recycled paper, post-consumer).

(made of recycled paper, post-consumer).

Why, I dread to ask?

shop toels called chem wipes, very little lint, highly absorbent, last i checked you could get them at auto supply type places

oops that should read towels not toels, just washed my hands and can't do a thing with them