Yellow staining edges on fiber prints

[Chris Coppola]

Hello, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to print. Having said that, my fiber paper (Ilford warmtone, ilford 300) is 3-5 years old I would say. I mixed fresh D72 1+2, 2 baths of fresh tf4, and had a running water stop bath per instructions on the tf4. Processed 3 min developer, 30 sec water bath (Tf4 instructions) and 30 sec in each fix bath (Tf4 says 1 min for Fb)….then wash 30-40 min.
So what I ended up getting was severely golden/yellow staining on the warmtone, and what I would call grey/magenta on the ilford 300 with some black "speckling". This was all evident in the fix bath and did not wash out. Not wanting to waste chems or time, I printed and processed newer year old Adox RC paper. 1 min dev, 30 sec water rinse, 30 sec each fix bath and prints came out the way they should. 1 of the 5 warmtone prints came out clean with no staining despite the same process.

Is the fiber paper too old and causing the yellowing? For the life of me I can’t figure it out. I’ll be ordering some fresh paper tomorrow, but wondering if i am missing something simple. Thanks for any help. If I wasn’t bald I would have been pulling out my hair.

 

[MarkS]

it's probably contamination.
I'll suggest
1) being more careful handling prints when going from bath to bath. I use tongs now,making sure that there is no back-contamination.
2) try using a citric acid stop bath (cheap & easy)
3) don't turn white lights on until your print has been in the fix, agitated, for at lest one minute.
These steps solved a similar issue for me, when I recently began printing again.

 

[Chris Coppola]

I think I’ll get up in the morning and scrub all my trays. I use tongs and am very careful about not having them touch other chemicals. Hopefully I can sort it. I had yellowing of a print when I started years ago but it appeared after a short washing. Having it happen in the fix is new.

 

[mshchem]

it's probably contamination.
I'll suggest
1) being more careful handling prints when going from bath to bath. I use tongs now,making sure that there is no back-contamination.
2) try using a citric acid stop bath (cheap & easy)
3) don't turn white lights on until your print has been in the fix, agitated, for at lest one minute.
These steps solved a similar issue for me, when I recently began printing again.

Steps 2&3 good idea.
With no acid stop, and no acid fixer. The developer may still be active???

 

[MARTIE]

I have to agree, it has to be the stop bath. There's far too much carry over of developer, certainly with fb paper, into the fix. I no longer use a stop bath with film processing, just water, but I would never print without a proper stop bath.
You're right about the instructions and it doesn't help that it instructs about both paper and film processing, back and forth at the same time, including staining developers.
Print staining is a common problem but with fresh chems and fresh paper, if needs be, you should see a marked improvement.

 

[Chris Coppola]

I added the stop bath…then rinsed before fixing. I also bumped my fix to 4 min rather than 1. As of right now the problem appears to be completely solved. Thank you for the helpful advice. Very happy I won’t need to toss valuable paper. Though I did order 100 extra sheets of ilford FB. Darn, I guess I will need to print more. Thank you again!