How best to clean dusty gritty negs?

[familydar]

I've come across a few old negs in the cellar of my parents' old house, thankfully not many, the majority of them were stored elsewhere in the house under better conditions.

Some have been stuck together and large areas of the emulsion are missing.  I realise there's nothing I can do about this but what about the ones coated in dust and grime?  How should I attempt to clean them for scanning?

Mixture of 2x2s (126?) and 35mm.

Jane :-)

[Treetotal]

Hi Jane...Some helpful advice here:


http://howtoscan.ca/scanning-tips/clean-negatives-before-scan-alcohol.php

It's a good idea to place a piece of white card over the negs to prevent curling and to keep them in place on the scanner. Place them shiny side down.

Carol

[familydar]

Thanks Treetotal

Jane :-)

[mike175]

Just a thought, not based on experience. It might be worth scanning them before you try cleaning them. That way you will at least have a copy of the 'dirty' image if things don't go to plan, and if the cleaning is successful you can delete it.

Mike.

[familydar]

Sensible idea Mike but they are so filthy I don't want to risk my scanner!

Jane :-)

[DrDude45]

You could scan them by placing them in a clear plastic sheet first, then scanning. it would protect from damage to the scanner, and limit the possibility of destroying the negatives

[Ray T]

It is possible that you'll damage them by cleaning so I'd certainly try scanning them before cleaning.

If they're so dirty that cleaning is the only option, as a last resort, I'd start by simply sticking them under the cold tap to rinse the muck off them. A final dip in clean water with a decent glug of methylated spirits will help and speed the drying process. Your biggest problem will be to find somewhere and some way of drying them. You don't want anything to touch the surface (particularly the emulsion side) otherwise it will leave a mark.

Someone will now come along and tell you I'm talking utter rubbish and the last thing you should do with negatives is clean them never mind get them wet ...... but bear in mind that the negatives were wet when they were processed and the final stage of that process involved washing them in copious amounts of water and drying them again. Over the years I've washed and dried more negatives than most people have had hot dinners!

[familydar]

I sourced some isopropanol (online) and can see that it would probably make an excellent job of cleaning greasy marks off negs, but it hasn't touched the cement dust or whatever is stuck to the ones I have.  I also tried a cotton bud dampened with water on a corner of one of them and it removed the emulsion, so I won't be pursuing that solution.  I have an idea there are commercial products available for cleaning cement from surfaces but I don't imagine they'd work on negs without removing the emulsion.

Toying with the idea of blu-tack or plasticene to try to detatch the grit, then go over them with IPA (no not that one  ) to remove the sticky residue that no doubt will be left behind, but other ideas welcome.

I can put the bigger ones inside clear plastic to get a scan without/before cleaning, but my desktop scanner probably wouldn't make a very good job of the 35mm ones and I don't want to feed them through my slide scanner in their current condition because I'm sure it would end up wrecked.

It could be that I'll have to ask the restorers on this board to see what they can do with very grainy 35mm scans but I'd prefer not to because many of the snaps will be of living people.

[purlin]

I would say Ray T is spot on,  clean water and a drop of Kodak or Jessops Photoflo solution in the final rinse will leave them streak free.  As Ray says drying is the main problem a dust free room or cabinet is necessary and slightly weight the bottom edge to stop curl.