VanDyke bleeding in waterbath

hello

Processing some VanDykes today, a number of them started 'bleeding' from the masked borders. This bleeding started about half way through the first water bath and developed into stains (quite prominent on paper white skies). I tried both leaving the print image size down in the initial water bath (with very little agitation) and ,at the same time, not adding citric acid to the water bath. This did work, for the most part . I'm thinking that it was probably the inversion of the print which helped; but, could the citric acid play a part in this problem? If the initial water bath was too acidic could it cause bleediing?
I should also say that I was printing on Stonehenge and the paper was double coated.
I have found very little information about this staining problem and was hoping that someone might have some answers or at least a better remedy. I also really like the look of stonehenge with palladium toned VDB and am hesitant to switching papers.

thanks
david

I'm going to take a crack and say it's a problem during coating. I've talked about this in other threads, but to sum it up, you're not getting th VBD solution into the fibers of the paper, but rather it's getting trapped in the surface sizing of the paper. When you wash the print, the surface sizing liquifies and allows the image to bleed.

Try a simple test: Coat your paper with distilled water, about the same amount you'd use to coat your image, or a 25% more if you want to be certain. Allow the paper to dry completely and then coat the VBD solution. Expose and process as normal. I'd bet you don't see any more bleeding after that. The distilled water has broken down the sizing and has swelled the fibers of the paper so they accept the coating solution more easily.

The surface sizing has homogenized with the pulp sizing in the paper and will no longer reticulate or expand causing bleeding.

Thanks for reading.

thanks Dana for your reply. I did come across one of your other threads on this subject and have tried your suggestion once, but I will try again. I found that with double coating using a puddle pusher rod that the paper was getting very 'bumpy' when I pre-coated with water. But it is worth another try because your theory totally makes sense.
I'm also wondering if subjecting the paper to very high humidity(in a humidity box), directly before coating, might also work? then the paper might not buckle as much?
At the same time, I do remember reading somewhere that if the sensitizer is absorbed too deeply into the paper, then the resulting image won't be as sharp as when it lays closer on the surface? This is why sizing is important.

cheers
david