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Archival permanence

Two Ilford sheets disagree on fibre-base wash time

Shows that Ilford’s July 2010 Rapid Fixer sheet and October 2013 Multigrade FB Classic sheet publish different plain running-water wash times for fibre-base paper after Rapid Fixer 1+4 for one minute at the overlapping temperature of 20°C — sixty minutes versus thirty to forty-five — while both prescribe the same Washaid timings and 1+4 dilution under different temperature wording and framings, and that neither document explains why the plain-water figures differ.

Published by AnalogFixer ·

A reader who fixes Multigrade FB Classic in Ilford Rapid Fixer at 1+4 for one minute and then looks up how long to wash in plain running water can get two answers from Ilford itself. The Rapid Fixer fact sheet, footer-dated July 2010, says sixty minutes. The Multigrade FB Classic technical information sheet, footer-dated October 2013, says thirty to forty-five minutes. Those fixing instructions overlap at 20°C, so the wash figures are comparable for that path. Neither sheet says the other is wrong, superseded, or scoped to a different paper.

This is a document comparison, not a wash recipe. The useful fact is that the published numbers disagree, and that the reason they disagree is not stated in either place.

The comparable path overlaps at 20°C

The July 2010 Rapid Fixer sheet is a generic black-and-white film and paper fixer sheet. Its fresh manual-fixing table at 20°C (68°F) gives FB paper one minute at 1+4, or two minutes at 1+9. Immediately under washing for fibre-base paper it states:

Wash FB papers for 60 minutes in fresh running water at a temperature above 5ºC (41ºF).

The October 2013 Multigrade FB Classic sheet is product-specific. Its processing summary lists Ilford Rapid Fixer or Hypam at 1+4, 18–24°C (64–75°F), for one minute, and then washing in fresh running water above 5°C (41°F) for 30–45 minutes. The same sheet says that standard fixing and washing give excellent permanence for commercial needs.

The temperatures are not identically stated: the fixer sheet gives the fresh manual FB 1+4 / one-minute time at 20°C; the paper sheet gives Rapid Fixer 1+4 / one minute across 18–24°C. The paths therefore overlap directly at 20°C. For Multigrade FB Classic fixed that way, one Ilford document publishes a sixty-minute plain-water wash and the other a thirty-to-forty-five-minute band. The fixer sheet is written for FB papers generally; the paper sheet is written for this paper. Their revision dates are three years apart. That is as far as the documents themselves go.

Bar comparison of fibre-base wash times: 60 minutes on Rapid Fixer versus 30–45 minutes on FB Classic.

Shared Washaid timings, different temperature wording

Both sheets then give the same Washaid timings and dilution:

  1. five minutes in fresh running water
  2. ten minutes in Ilford Washaid 1+4
  3. five minutes in fresh running water

The temperature wording is not identical. On the Rapid Fixer sheet, the first and final running-water stages are above 5°C and the Washaid bath is 18–24°C. On the Multigrade sheet, the whole optimum-permanence sequence, including wash water, is specified at 18–24°C. Those ranges overlap when all water is held at 18–24°C, but the sheets do not use the same temperature text.

On the Rapid Fixer sheet, that timed route sits under the sixty-minute plain wash and is introduced as reducing washing time and saving time and water. On the Multigrade FB Classic sheet, the same five / ten / five timings are the “optimum permanence” route for possible archival storage, recommended when that is needed, after the sheet has already presented thirty to forty-five minutes of plain washing as the commercial standard.

That shared timed route does not adjudicate which plain-water duration is intended. It is an additional published procedure both documents describe, with overlapping temperatures when wash water is 18–24°C, not a verdict on sixty versus thirty-to-forty-five. The Multigrade sheet is the one that attaches “optimum permanence” and possible archival storage to the sequence; the Rapid Fixer sheet does not use that framing. Neither sheet cites a residual-thiosulfate figure or a test method beside these wash times — and on the December 2017 Chemical Sundries sheet that introduces Washaid, the same five / ten / five route still leaves a twenty-versus-five final-wash conflict on one page; see Washaid’s final wash is five minutes and twenty on one page.

What the sheets do not settle

Neither document says that one supersedes the other. Neither explains why the plain-water figure for fibre-base paper is sixty minutes in one place and thirty to forty-five in the other. The later date on the paper sheet is not, by itself, a statement that the fixer sheet’s wash time has been withdrawn. The shorter band on the paper sheet is not, by itself, evidence that Multigrade FB Classic washes faster than other fibre-base papers. Calling either figure the conservative one would be an inference the sources do not support.

What a careful reading does support is narrower. For Multigrade FB Classic fixed in Rapid Fixer 1+4 for one minute at the overlapping temperature of 20°C, Ilford has published two plain running-water wash times and one shared Washaid timing and dilution under different temperature wording. Which plain-water figure applies is not answered by cross-reference inside these sheets. A reader who needs a single number has to notice that the manufacturer’s own documents leave that choice open — and that the Washaid route both publish is a shared timed procedure under two different purposes, not a ruling on the plain-water conflict. Published minutes are not, in any case, the same kind of claim as the residual-thiosulfate limits the ISO standards tier by material class; see Washing to zero is not what the standards ask for.

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