Topic: Cleaning old negatives

[Pete_R]

Has anyone suggestions on how to clean old negatives. I have some taken by my father I'm slowly sorting and scanning but some need cleaning. One in particular I would like to clean has most of the grime on the non-emulsion side so I assume it should be possible to clean but I've never tried before so would welcome any suggestions.

[seekingfocus]

I believe you can just re-wash, then soak in photo-flo or something similar for a couple minutes and dry as normal.

-Jason

[Francois]

If you want to go the commercial route, Edwal makes a tiny bottle of negative cleaner. It's supposed to be the safest thing. You use it with a cotton ball to wipe the grime off the negative.

[Pete_R]

I've seen the Edwal and there's also Pec-12. From what I've found out so far, the Edwal is mainly Isopropyl alchohol and I've already tried that (I use it in my job). I don't know what the pec-12 consistes of but I've seen one reference that says it is only recommended for modern, hardened films. The films I want to clean are 50+ years old and I've no idea what sort of stock it is (no markings at all) or how it was processed.

I've also found information which says you shouldn't use any water based products, or try washing the films, as, with old films, the emulsion may come away. Don't know how true that is but I'm reluctant to try.

I've not been able to find any references from people with first hand experience. Searches only seem to turn up hear say or references to cleaning products.

Maybe it's going to be a case of accepting the negs as they are and spending a long time spotting the scans.

[Wally]

I have had great luck cleaning negatives with the premoistened lens cloths sold under the "Zeiss" brand. You can get a large box of them at Sam's Club where they sell the eyeglasses. The are designed to be eyeglass lens cleaners but work very well on negatives. I have used them on old slides and negatives that were my parents from the 1960s and 1970s with no issues.

[Pete_R]

Thanks Wally. After a quick look I can only find them here in the UK as part of the Zeiss cleaning kit, not on their own, but I''ll look some more.

Do you know what the ingedients are of what's on them?

[Wally]

All the box says is that it contains Isopropyl alchohol but does not really list what other ingredients are in it. I would just go to a store that sells eyeglasses to see if they have it. I will warn you however that they do dry out pretty quickly so plan on cleaning a bunch of them at once.