Ilford Multigrade Warmtone fiber paper aging .. ?

**Matus Kalisky** · 28-Mar-2007, 00:48

Hello,

just a simple question. When would you call such a paper "old" ? How long keeps a photographic paper (especiall the one mentioned) its properties ? I have a chance to get 2 years old 18x24 cm for a reasonable price. I want to use it for contact prints (will have to cut it into havles first). Should I better get directly fresh 13x18 (cm) ?

thanks.

Matus

**Ole Tjugen** · 28-Mar-2007, 04:02

Much of my paper is going on 10 years old. Two years old is "fresh"!

**twellendorf** · 28-Mar-2007, 04:23

Paper tends to be much more tolerant to aging than film. To test it develop an un-exposed sheet for twice the normal time, fix, wash and dry. Then take another sheet and skip the developer and just fix, wash and dry it. compair the two and see if their is any detectable difference in base fog on the two sheets.

The following shot was made on very old Kodabrom F2 RC.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7144584%40N03/437079026/

**Matus Kalisky** · 28-Mar-2007, 04:33

Thanks,

I just want to start with contact printing and have no eperience on paper developement yet - so I have no "standard" procedure. So - I will go for it.

M..

**Ralph Barker** · 28-Mar-2007, 07:32

You can contact tech support at Ilford Photo with the batch code(s) printed on the packaging to get the "official" date of expiration. But, as others have mentioned, papers, when stored reasonably, are even more tolerant than film with respect to the expiration date.