in my darkroom some of the multigrade papers & graded papers are mixed up, appreciate if somebody gives me the direction how to separate them thanx

-- hamid kalkatechi (joojoojaan@yahoo.com), July 22, 1999

Answers

The only thing I can suggest, since you are working in the dark, is this: take a sample from each of the papers you have that are not mixed up, and get a feel for them between your fingers; hopefully, each type of paper you have will feel different. Then, in the darkroom, start feeling your way through the mixed-up pile, and sort them accordingly. If you are working with various finishes (i.e., one glossy, one matt, etc.) this will be easy. Otherwise, good luck...

-- shawn gibson (shawn.gibson@utoronto.ca), July 23, 1999.

if you can't seperate them with complete certainty, throw it all out. There is nothing more frustrating than to get to final print and get the wrong sheet of paper.

-- mark lindsey (lindseygraves@msn.com), July 26, 1999.

If the papers are still in separate bags, you can determine if the contents in a bag are multigrade by testing a single sheet for the response to the multigrade filters. (Make a print at each extreme. If you get different contrasts, it is multigrade.)

But if the individual sheets are mixed up, and they are the same weight and paper surface: bad luck.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), July 26, 1999.

One thought: out of the box, FB paper tends to have a curl, RC tends to be flat.

-- Gene Crumpler (nikonguy@worldnet.att.net), July 28, 1999.

Very true, and FB can be easily distinguished from RC by feel, but does that help Hamid?

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), July 28, 1999.