Jack, give her a go with no filter atallatall. If it's a little flat you'll need to try again on grade 3. If it's a bit contrasty, explore pre-flashing the paper a wee bit. If that doesn't work you'll need to go to grade 1. Filters will do you no good on graded paper. If it's a negative you love and it's too contrasty for the grade 2, make a very bland unsharp mask for the neg to throttle it back a bit.
Jack,
Graded paper will not change contrast when used with variable contrast filters. However, all printing paper responds to light in the blue end of the spectrum. As I previously stated, if you are attempting to change the contrast of graded paper by exposing it through a 00 variable contrast filter (green light), graded paper being less sensitive to green, and will give the response you are experiencing.
Try printing on the grade 2 Oriental paper without filtration. Set the dichroic color filters on your enlarger so that they emit only white light, with no color tint at all.
Jack:
There are many ways to change contrast with graded papers. See my article 'Printing Tips', under 'Contrast Controls':
http://www.edpiercephoto.com/p-tips.html
I have used Oriental graded papers since they were first introduced by Freestyle.
As has been stated, use no filtration with these graded papers.
You can lower contrast up to 1 grade by using two developers.
First develop in a soft working developer such as Ansco 120 or Kodak Selectol Soft. Allow the development to progress until highlights are where you want them and then move the print to a more active developer such as Dektol, or D-72 (not the packaged one as it is more than 20 years old). This developer will bring up the shadows. Your combination of times will vary with each print, but a total of 3 minutes is "average". Some prints go up to 5 minutes.
Always use the soft developer first and don't allow the Dektol to contaminate the soft developer.
According to David Kachel, contrast on graded papers can also be reduced (in a way he likes) by treating the paper with highly diluted potassium ferricyanide between exposing and developing. Contrast can be increased in a certain sort of way by ferricyanide bleaching at the end. I don't know if that's done before or after fixing--could someone speak to that?
I believe that this is called "Sterry's method". David Vestal researched it thoroughly in his book "The Art of B&W Enlarging". It looked like a very long way around to get to the answer. I used to use the tw0-developer method with Seagull and Kodak Elite, it does the job well. Unfortunately I am sensitive to Metol so Ansco 120 and Selectol-Soft cause allergic reactions. Luckily there are fine variable-contrast papers these days so I can use them and one tray of developer- and 'normal' print developers don't give me trouble.
I would try using a different developer. If you mix your own try 55-D, you can get the formula from Ed Buffaloe's site unblinkingeye.com and it's in the Darkroom Cookbook. If your not mixing try LPD from Ethol. It lasts along time and changes contrast with dilution. You can get it in powder or liquid. Sometimes if I have aprint that needs a little punch I just pour a little of the dev. into the tray to bump the contrast. Or in your case add water. If you try the 55-D it is a slower developer than D-72 you wont see anything until at least a minute. Pay no attention to the timer-judge your highlights.
Dektol and me just dont get along. Good luck.
According to Kachel, ferricyanide works far better than Sterry's dichromate. In particular, he claims it produces little speed loss. Several writers have cited Kachel's report, but I have not seen independant tests or tried it myself.
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