120 Film stuck to backing paper

Has anyone had this issue? A buddy and I came across an old exposed roll of Russian film. Today we went to develop a pile of rolls, and when I went to load this particular roll up, I found the film was almost glued to the backing paper throughout its entire length. Peeling part of it off left paper on back the film. Its on there good. I rolled it back up and figured we'd ask people smarter than us.

Anyway to separate this stuff, or are we screwed?

Thanks for the help!

I found a roll a bit like this in a very old camera. It has probably got wet. The emulsion side is on the other side to the backing paper. If you can still load it onto a reel you have a chance but it's tricky to develop very old film. I have successfully developed film exposed over 40 years ago. You could soak the stuck backing paper off in pitch black darkness and try to load onto reels. Ilford suggest that wet film can be loaded onto a reel under water. I have never tried this!

It probably got wet at some point in time. IDK if it would be worth the effort to process it.

I have never had this problem but I'd have thought that immersing the roll in warmish water, say 75F for say 10 mins will separate the film from the paper sufficiently to clear it with fingers. If this doesn't work then immerse for longer

pentaxuser

I've processed such film alone, not with other rolls. The paper pretty much comes off in the process leaving spots, but I've usually gotten a few good shots per roll.

PE

Thanks for the help guys! I'll give it a run and see what happens.

soak it in water over night. Then in your darkroom, remove the paper and load the film into your tank n develop it.

paul ron said:

soak it in water over night. Then in your darkroom, remove the paper and load the film into your tank n develop it.

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The film will be wet at that point so, at least for Paterson plastic-reels, load in a bucket of water to eliminate the 'stiction' effect between film and spiral. This may, or may not, also be necessary if using a steel-reel - has anyone loaded wet film onto steel-reels??

no problem loading wet film on ss reels. just have to handel the wet film by the edges as you unroll it into the reel.

I have 15 or so rolls of HP3 and FP3 120 that my late ex-father-in-law had shot around 1952 and never processed. The backing paper sticks to both sides of the film, so that it does impede processing if not removed first. I may try getting as much as possible off, then loading the film plus paper blotches in a SS tank, and soaking overnight, then squeegeeing in darkness, then reload and develop. The ones I tried without doing this did have images, but marred by the sticking paper.

FWIW, I also had a bunch of 2x3 glass plates from around the same era that he never processed, including a batch marked "coronation" that actually produced images. It was an excitement to see those! Almost like going through a time machine.