Yellowish-Brownish borders of my prints

[norm the storm]

Hi

I did some prints last week-end and I suspect that the temperature of the water during washing was too cold, maybe 6-12 C. My teen used all the hot water during his shower at the same time of my printing session. My prints looks too grey and the borders of the papers are yellowish-brownish. What's wrong? I used washing aid. Am I right to suspect the temperature of water? It was RC papers.

Thanks for all replies.

[Jac@stafford.net]

My vote is incomplete fixing.

[Jim Noel]

Incomplete fixing plus incomplete washing. With water in this temperature range chemical action slows a lot, or even stops.

[norm the storm]

My vote is incomplete fixing.

Thank you for the advises.
I'll take care of it

[Peter Mounier]

Bad fixing, very old, expired paper, or possibly a darkroom that wasn't dark (if the borders are gray too).
The grayish image on the paper could be the result of overexposure and under developing, but the yellow borders are probably due to inadequate fixing

[Drew Wiley]

... or the fixer just didn't sufficiently cover the edges of the print due to inadequate submersion or agitation before the room lights went on.

[AtlantaTerry]

re-fix
re-wash

[Mark Sawyer]

Just trouble-shooting ideas...

As your son used all the hot water, you may have gotten some rust stirred up in the water heater, although that would have been visible in the water.

Discoloration from an inadequate wash generally doesn't show up for years unless it's flagrantly inadequate.

Set a print in the sun for a few hours to check if it's incomplete fixing, but RC papers fix pretty fast.

Or your son may have pee'd in the wash water... :rolleyes:

[norm the storm]

I'll do it

Thank you to everybody

[ClaudioSz]

My experience: Not enough time in the fixer before turning white light. Wait three minutes at least. The yellow stain does not disappear with ferricyanide, only with sodium cyanide alone (is too dangerous).

[Colin D]

Or your son may have pee'd in the wash water... :rolleyes:

:-) :-) :-) can't stop laughing, what a pi55er.

[Toyon]

If it is just yellow, then it may edge toning, a vexing problem with some papers and developers. To test for this, add benzotriazole to your developer and see if that eliminates the problem.