MrclSchprs, and others, this is one of those threads exhibiting a wealth of contradictory results, as sometimes occurs among the variables of our medium. I have been struggling to get anything above a Gr. 3 with Fomatone, as posted over on largeformatphotography.info. General, but not universal, consensus is that my extra-dim amber safelighting is the problem, although my tests with Fomatone have shown no fogging despite up to eight minutes of pre-development safelight exposure. I may yet run the rigorous Kodak test recommended but remain skeptical. And tests with red lamps made no difference. There are some other variables, like printing with a coldlight head, which some -- not all -- have said is problematic with this paper.
For what it's worth:
I find the paper warmer than Ilford WTF with a different color, both toned and untoned, thus a nice complement to Ilford;
Base is slightly warmer than Ilford, but stronger yellowish tint just after fixer clears significantly by end of wash;
Needs 3 minutes of development, not 2 -- no good blacks at 2. I have used both Multigrade and Eco-Pro developers.
Tones almost instantly even at 1:20, so that I have resorted to 1:80 selenium just to give me a little time control at around 68 F;
Lovely with long-scale negs, with nice separation in mid and high values;