old paper

[trudee yama]

Have a chance to purchase wrapped and refrigerated, 3-4 year old fiber based paper. 8x10 and 11x14, forte, oriental, berger, and ilford....is it worth it or are they too old?

thanks,

trudee

 

[Rick A]

It should be okay to use, but get it cheap, do not pay anywhere close to new price. tell them its a crap shoot and you'll take it off their hands just to get rid of it.

 

[bdial]

Especially if it's been refridgerated it's most likely fine. You can test it by cutting a couple of pieces off a sheet of each package. Develop then fix one without exposing it, and only fix the other one (mark each on the back first).
If they match, the paper is ok, if not then it has some degree of fogging indicated by how gray the developed sheet is in comparison to the fixed sheet. If it's lightly fogged you may be able to save it by adding an anti-fog additive like Benzotriazole to the developer.

 

[DLM]

I was going to ask a similar question today. I got somewhere in the range of 1000-1500 sheets of various papers for free today, along with basically a whole darkroom. I think it was stored in a box in a garage, so who knows if it's any good. I plan to try out the tip that bdial mentioned.

 

[gmikol]

I was going to ask a similar question today. I got somewhere in the range of 1000-1500 sheets of various papers for free today, along with basically a whole darkroom. I think it was stored in a box in a garage, so who knows if it's any good. I plan to try out the tip that bdial mentioned.

Well, as someone just getting started in carbon printing, I'd gladly take any paper off your hands that turned out to be un-desirably fogged. I'm serious. PM me and we can talk.

--Greg