Problem with Oriental Seagull RC

I recently tried printing with Oriental Seagull RC. Film-Ilford Delta 400, paper developer Ilford Multigrade for 60-90 sec, stop bath for 15 sec, fix for 3-5 min. My prints were quite gray and muddy with no bright whites, even along the print margin which should have bee pure white. Other paper from same session (kodak Polymax) did not show the same problem. So I think my chemicals were ok. Bad batch of paper? overdeveloped? fixed improperly? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Phil

I thought it has been years since Oriental Seagull RC was produced and if so then some age-fogging is to be expected. Kodak Polymax doesn't have a reputation for being top of the league in terms of longevity without age-fogging but in your case it seems to have survived better than Oriental but might be younger than Oriental.

Use some benzotriazole in the print developer. This might help the greyness. Losing contrast which is another age problem may be more difficult or even impossible to cure. I take it you tried to increase the grade to give the print more sparkle but this failed?

If you increase the grade of the filter or the setting of the Y and M on a colour head and it makes no difference then I think you can conclude that you are stuck with low contrast paper unless anyone here knows differently?

pentaxuser

Oriental Seagull RC is still available new.

Thanks Matt. I haven't see any of it in the U.K. None of the outlets I know of seem to stock it but as it is still produced new then it would seem to come down to how old the respective makes of paper were.

What are their respective ages, OP. Thanks

pentaxuser

I should have added and this is addressed to everyone who knows: Which company makes Oriental Seagull. It appears to be graded paper in the range of 2-4

pentaxuser

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. The paper is new, as is the developer, but I've learned that Oriental is more sensitive to a safelight than I realized. I will be changing the bulb wattage and checking what type of filter is on it, as well as doing a test when I get back in the darkroom.
Phil

Thinking about it a little more then I suppose asit is currently made then it comes down to how many companies there are who (a) have the capacity and (b) the facilities to make paper. Can we rule out Adox and Foma due to size and if we can does that only leave Ilford?

Thanks

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

Thinking about it a little more then I suppose asit is currently made then it comes down to how many companies there are who (a) have the capacity and (b) the facilities to make paper. Can we rule out Adox and Foma due to size and if we can does that only leave Ilford?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

Why would you rule out Foma? BTW, Adox paper is coated by InovisCoat and Harman.

There is Slavich and Lucky that do B&W too.

The warmtone version of the paper is definitely made by Foma. It was mentioned in Tim Rudman's last lith materials update (Feb 2013). I don't know about the other versions of the paper but Foma may be responsible for more of them.