Can leaving a print in fixer too long cause damage/staining?

Question

This is a question for you oldskool B&W photographers, I'm hoping there's some of you out there ;)

I am just getting round to sorting out my darkroom and thought I'd give it a test run now the power was in. The first thing I wanted to test was that the old paper I was given still worked, if only for testing even if not final prints. Freshly opened I developed an unexposed piece and all was well. I then made a few test contact sheets and although overexposed because I didn't eyt know the speed of the paper, all developed well.

I then made a couple of test prints, which looked fine in the darkroom but having removed them and seeing them in normal light, the edges of the paper had brown discolouration. The test contacts I had made previously were perfectly fine.

Now I know the paper is old so there's a possibility it is this, but given that the top sheets of paper, which are the most likely to have reacted with the packaging were fine, this seems less likely than I first thought. There's also the chance of the fixer getting exhausted, and I'll have to check this at a later date.

The main difference between the test contact sheets and the prints I made was that because I knew I was throwing the contacts away I didn't leave them in the fixer very long. Being an amateur who has only had a few evening classes in the darkroom I was under the assumption that fixer is harmless, and the longer you leave the prints in the fix the better, so that is what I did for the prints. Given that it is Ilford Rapid Fixer I have they were in there for long over the recommended time, which I had assumed was a minimum for safe fixing.

So my question, could the excessive time I leave a print in the fixer have negative effects on the print to cause this brown staining around the edge?

Answer

The answer is yes, although you must have left the prints in the fixer for quite a while to see the staining immediately. It's usually something that creeps in over time. It may be the case that your paper has oxidized from the edges inward before you used it, but you can check that by simply wasting a sheet and processing it "by the clock" (without exposing it, so you can eliminate as many variables as possible).

The length of time in the fixer isn't super-critical or anything. It's only the developer that you've got to get bang on; the stop bath and the fixer are (as you surmised) more or less a meet-the-minimum sort of thing. But the fixer is reactive, and for prints that are meant to last more than a very short time, it's something you want to get rid of. Otherwise you'll get that loverly yellow/brown patina of age in a hurry without the bother of toning.

In a typical "intro to the darkroom" course, you'll be shown the things that are necessary to make magic happen -- straight develop/stop/fix. And if you were shooting old-tyme news photos in the Weegee style to get something to the prepress guys, that's all you'd need. But if you want prints to last for any time at all, there's still a step to go, and that's to get rid of all of the residual chemistry (mostly the hypo/fixer). Your prints need at least a wash in running water -- how long depends on whether the paper is fiber-based (long time -- typically five minutes or more) or resin (shorter, since the "paper" itself doesn't absorb much and you only need to "clear" the emulsion). A hypo-clearing rinse (compatible with your fixer, of course) before the wash can speed the process up considerably.

An "archival" print washer is fairly cheap and easy to make if you can't pick one up cheaply enough. There are several DIY solutions online -- just search for "archival print washer". Both the "cascade" and the "upflow" desgns are effective; pick whatever looks easiest to make to you.

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