I've searched through the forums at length before posting this.
I was fortunate enough to receive a couple of fibre based prints as part of my group print exchange. Both were printed on Ilford Warmtone. I really like the gloss finish, weight and tactile feel of the paper (and the prints of course!) but I'm not sure of the base colour. I can see a definite use for some of my subject matter, particularly architectural subjects and some still life. However on some of my prints I prefer a strong white and I'm not sure if this is attainable with the WT paper. One paper I've been looking at for this purpose is Forte Polygrade. I noticed on the Silverprint site that the Polywarmtone is a bit slower than Ilford and also is realistically a maximum Grade 4. How would this affect split grade when using #5 and #0 filters and how does this paper compare to standard Ilford MGFB?
I've only used Ilford products up to now, specifically because of their consistency and quality. I'm going to order a few different 25 sheet packs today and besides the Ilford WT and probably the Forte are there any other suggestions? My ideal would be to find a paper that can be altered by use of different developers and/or toning and that would meet 90% of my requirements.