Kentmere Graded Paper Processing

Alex Hawley · Oct 23, 2007

I've been using Kentmere graded papers for about a year now, both Bromide and Kentona. There's one problem I keep having that I haven't been able to get around. The emulsion tends to flake off at the edges after the paper has been wet for a few minutes. Never have had that happen with other papers, even after several hours, perhaps an entire day, of being immersed. I guess its an inherent characteristic of the Kentmere emulsion for some reason. It seems to be limited to the area at the edges of the sheet which typically gets trimmed off when mounting. However, I have had trouble with emulsion flakes getting embedded in the image area which is highly annoying.

What am doing wrong or has someone found a work-around for this?

Photo Engineer · Oct 23, 2007

Alex;

In my experience that has been either a support defect or an emulsion coating defect.

This may not be the case, but IMHO, improper baryta is usually the culprint if a support defect. The baryta is either too hard, or there is not enough gelatin in the baryta, and therefore it is brittle.

Other problem areas include the lack of or insufficiency of humectants in the coating or baryta layer, or overhardening of the coating layers.

I do not thing it is your fault!

PE

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Oct 23, 2007

I had the exact same problems with Kentmere Bromide (G3). At first I wasn't sure if I roughened up the print, or whether it stayed wet too long, but I compared Kentmere with some other paper I had on hand (can't recall). I could readily scratch off the emulsion layer of the Bromide, but could not do so easily on the other brand.

I did not have these problems in my recent printing sessions, so I'm crossing fingers. But I will definitely watch it out in the next box I will buy.

Hopefully this is something that the Harman takeover might alleviate.

Photo Engineer · Oct 23, 2007

Kentmere and Ilford get their baryta from the same source AFAIK.

PE

Alex Hawley · Oct 23, 2007

mhv said:
I did not have these problems in my recent printing sessions, so I'm crossing fingers. But I will definitely watch it out in the next box I will buy.

That's interesting Michel. The box of Kentona I now have was purchased a couple months ago and still has the problem. But the purchase date doesn't necessarily mean anything regarding manufacture date.

PE, you got me thinking (as usual ). Perhaps the problem lies in their cutting process. It appears somewhat random, differing in location from sheet to sheet. Have never had it extend more than an eight inch from the edge. Its more typically confined to 1/16 or so from the edge. These numbers are just guestimates from my memory.

Shawn Dougherty · Oct 23, 2007

I've experienced the edge flaking as well. It happened on the edges of sheets I cut down to 4x5. They trimmed off fine without further flaking when I cut them down for dry mounting. I haven't had the problem of the lost pieces sticking to the paper though. So far it hasn't been a problem for me at all and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed because I've really fallen in love with the Kentona.

juan · Oct 24, 2007

There is a long thread somewhere in which a apugger was having this problem. He wrote Kentmere, and the company advised a total wet time of 30-minutes IIRC. That's far too short for me - I can't take individual prints all the way through the wash stage.

However, like Michel, I have not noticed this with the last couple of boxes of Kentona. Some of my sessions in which I'm working out the formula on multiple prints require prints to be wet for six or eight hours.
juan

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 24, 2007

I too found the wet time almost disturbing. The problems I'm having are not related to edge flaking, but rather that of contamination stains. I was advised that it is probably due to over-washing.
If the total wet time is 30 minutes, then how can you even archivally wash it? Seriously, my dev time is 3 minutes in Ansco 130 1+3, stop bath about a minute, fix about 3 minutes in Sprint fixer. That alone is seven minutes, so I'm now left with 23 minutes for an archival wash. Then add toning to that and I would really be in trouble. It's curious that it's the same baryta base as Ilford papers, because those I can keep in the wet for hours on end.
I'm going to be very interested to see how this thread progresses.
- Thomas

juan · Oct 24, 2007

Are you sure they are contamination stains? I had yellow fogging on my Kentona before making adjustments with restrainers in my developer. Any chance that's what you're seeing?
juan

Thomas Bertilsson · Oct 24, 2007

Juan,
I honestly don't know since I've never actually mixed chemistry myself, besides dry kits. I have no clue about the technicalities of chemistry. I just use the materials that are available to me.
I confess that for my own purposes I don't really care what the stains are either; I stopped using Kentmere and no more problem. Trying to keep it simple. Thanks for commenting, and hoping I'm not stealing any thunder from the original poster.
- Thomas

Photo Engineer · Oct 24, 2007

There are threads here and on LFF discussing yellow stain on Kentmere paper. They claim that the solution Juan suggests is correct and the problem is due to the removal of Cadmium from the formula.

I have never seen the removal of cadmium cause a yellow stain. I worked extensively with emulsions with and without cadmium and never ever saw it cause a yellow stain either way. It must be some other interaction.

IMHO, flaking paper and yellow stains are defective products!

PE

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