Dennis Shubitowski
dshubito@d.imap.itd.umich.edu

Dennis, Yes, I have successfully unstuck pairs of Polaroid negs. Actually, the water soak will work, but you have to soak them for a long time, at least overnight, say 12-16 hours. Then you have to slowwwwwwwly pull them apart to avoid pulling the emulsion off. A "pucker" mark may remain where they were joined, but usually its translucent so that a positive print will seldom reveal the pucker mark, especially on "busy" image detail, and as long as original image density was not disturbed.

When this happens to my negs, its usually in a spot no larger than the size of a quarter (25 cent piece). If its most of the area of the negs, that is serious trouble.

When I dry Polaroid negs in racks, I skip slots so that there is lots of space between adjacent negs to prevent sticking from occuring as the negs "wiggle" as they air dry.

Gib Ahlstrand
giba@puccini.crl.umn.edu

I have had limited success with an overnight Photoflo soak followed by ultrasonication. Films stuck emulsion to film back seem to separate easier than those stuck emulsion to emulsion.

Richard J. Mount
e-mail:richard.mount@mailhub.sickkids.on.ca

I agree with Richard, above, that film back stuck to emulsion is easier to seperate, and this is the case I usually run into as I dry my Polaroid negs in racks with the emulsion of one facing the back of the next neg.

A point that I left out in my previous note describing successful use of overnight water soak to seperate stuck negs is how I set this up. As with many techniques, success lies in the details of the method. I load a pair of stuck negs into my usual neg drying rack with edges of one neg in one set of slots, edges of other neg in adjacent set of slots. The effect is to separate the negs where they are not stuck to enable water to get directly to the stuck area. Success depends on getting good water soak and softening of the film emulsion. If you were to simple lay the two stuck negs flat in a pan of water, might not get as good a soak as when the films are seperated a bit to allow water access.

Gib Ahlstrand
giba@puccini.crl.umn.edu

YES, virginia, polaroid negatives can usually be unstuck, just soak in very hot water about 10 -20 minutes, then GENTLY pull them apart, GRADUALLY turning and pulling a little untilthe whole gelatine that is stuck gets soaked through and losened. Some times if more completely dried out, the emulsion of one will be stuck to the second, usually the second can be saved completely, but some of the first will be lost (natually the center, best part of the image) good luck

Alan S. Pooley
pooley@ahab.rutgers.edu