Old paper

[gth]

I picked up a bunch of darkroom equipment and included was some old paper.

I'll test them, but perhaps you can help out with what I can expect.

I have:

1. 250 sheet box of ILFOBROM 3. 8x10. Supposedly very old.

2. 25 sheet box of Ilford MG1M Ilfospeed Multigrade. 8x10. Supposedly very old

3. 100 sheet box of Fujicolor Crystal Archive Super type C (Matte). 8x10

4. Various larger size papers in sealed plastic factory bags, no box and no id.
Supposedly Ilford b/w. Are there any characteristics or markings that makes it possible to identify these under safelight.

If you can give some better idea of what have and if it is potentially useful I'd appreciate it!

Thanks!

/gth

[Pawlowski6132]

Some fog.

[IanG]

The Ifobrom will most lkely be a full grade less in contrast but may well be OK, the MG may be slightly foggy or useless,

I've 50 year old bromide papers that have no trace of fog but chloro-bromide (warm tone) papers age less well and often go very foggy, as can MG papers.

Ian

[Oren Grad]

In my experience Ilford papers tend to be extremely stable - I've never had any Ilford paper become foggy or unusable, even after ten years.

OTOH, Ilfobrom and the original Multigrade are going to be more than 15 years old, and possibly quite a bit older than that. And you don't know about storage conditions for this lot. So the usual advice, to test a few samples for yourself, applies all the more.

I can't speak to the color paper.

[EdWorkman]

Faced with bad old paper and no alternative, I discoverd that "over" exposure and extremely short development will produce satisfactory prints. I even obtained shadow separation and clear highlights from a very contrasty negative- perhaps the contrasty neg was the key to success. A real PITA to get an unmottled print with really short development, with a high number of rejects, but the adequate prints I got saved the day.

[chassis]

I've used 15-20 yr old Kodak RC VC papers with no noticeable performance change. They were stored cool and dry during that period. Just a data point.

[imagedowser]

Don't forget it may be very useful to shoot as film. Perfect for carbon printing.

[Scott Walker]

Don't forget it may be very useful to shoot as film. Perfect for carbon printing.

That's a good thought, I have some Gallerie grade 2 in 11x14 that is from about 1990 and stored at room temp, it does not produce an acceptable print. It is a bit flat and muddy, barely noticeable but certainly noticeable enough to not be usable.
I will have to cut it down to 8x10 and load it in film holders, worth a try. :)

[Ole Tjugen]

I used a pack of very old Ilfospeed to print an "impossible" negative. The paper was most likely about 20 years old, and had by now gotten "soft shoulders" - not quite fogged, but somewhat like what you would expect from a preflash with G0 on multigrade? I was about to discard it after doing a stepwedge test, but then I realised that a G4 paper with G0 highlights was exactly what I needed for a negative I had been struggling with forever - I think it's even older than the paper!