Ilford Rapid Fixer Question

[jmal]

Hello,

I just used Rapid Fixer for the first time last night and have a question. After developing, stopping, fixing (for 4 minutes in 1+4 dilution, which is approaching the outer time recommendation), and washing, my negs felt slippery, much like rc paper when pulled from the developer tray. Is this normal for a rapid fixer? If so, is this due to the fact that it does not have a hardener like the Kodak I usually use? Thanks.

Jmal

 

[Ole]

The slipperyness when you pull RC paper from the dev is because the alkalinity is high enough to convert some of the grease/fat in the skin of your fingers to soap.

I hope that your washed film is not quite as alkaline...

In my experience wet film is slippery - if it isn't, there's something wrong.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

That is odd: rapid fixer is acidic, so you shouldn't see this alkalinity in your negs. I suppose you use an acidic stop bath as well, so unless you mistakenly used water for both stop AND fix, this should not be the case...

If the film is slippery but your fingers are not, then it's probably just the wet emulsion feeling, like Ole says.

 

[jmal]

Thanks for the responses. The stop is an acidic bath, Kodak to be specific. As I hope my initial post intimated, the film seemed much more slimy than I had ever experienced. I'm not sure what an improperly fixed neg looks like, but the negs appear to be as normal as all my previous ones.

Jmal