Mathematical Trees Study 2: Lith vs Blue Toning (less acid?)

I ran another Iron Blue toning experiment on my earlier lith prints. I normally mix this as 5+5+10+5 from the Moersch MT7 iron blue toning kit I use. The nomenclature means iron + bleach+stabilizer+acid. I mix 500ml batches for these 8x10 prints so the numbers are milliliters plus enough water to make 500ml. 

The results in the past have been good but I wanted to keep the highlights clearer and in the case of the lith prints retain some of the original tone of the lith developer. The earlier versions had the lith tone almost completely subsumed by the blue tone. 

Reading the documentation indicated the the strength of the acid could increase the rate of toning but also tone the highlights more. so I reasoned I should try less acid. It would at least give a little more time to decide when to pull the print. I mixed it as 5+5+10+2. 

The result did improve on some of my objectives. The change of color was slower and proceeded more slowly through the highlights. I managed to get a better mix of color at the expense of some patchiness. The first one below on Oriental Seagull paper exhibits a light blue on the brightest highlights and a purple almost aubergine color elsewhere. 

Lith vs Iron Blue Tone Oriental Seagull 3 paper

There were similar results with the Fotospeed paper with patches of the original salmon color shining through the highlights. 

Lith vs Iron Blue Tone Fotospeed 7 paper

The reduced acid I think meant the bleach had more time to act as the highlights bleached back quite a bit. This was unexpected but makes sense. Perhaps a useful tool.

Not sure if the results are great but a fun experiment.