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Old 17th January 2022, 08:06 PM
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BuzzNL BuzzNL is offline
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Location: The Netherlands
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Default Lith printing Agfa Brovira-Speed glossy paper, surface finish gets really soft?

Not too long ago I started experimenting with lith printing.
I use Moersch Easy Lith, FomaCitro stop and FomaFix fixer.

Made my first prints on Agfa Portriga-Speed paper, which I have in "Fine-grained matte" finish, PN318PE. Truly gorgeous results!

Now I also have a lot of Brovira-Speed paper in various sizes and finishes, so I started with the Glossy variant (of which I have the most), BN310PE.
The paper liths really well, both colorwise and exposurewise. It's a much faster paper than Portriga-speed and it produces beautiful yellow-brownish highlights. Both papers give very different but beautiful results.

Now for the issue.
In my normal procedure, after fix and wash I tend to place the print on a towel (printed side up) and squeegee the excess water off the print. This has always worked for me without any scratches or issues.
Bought the squeegee new, use it for darkroom use only and it's still in good condition.

When I do this with the Brovira-Speed Glossy paper after Lith dev/stop/fix/wash, the surface turns true matte and stays matte until the paper is completely dry.
By then, the gloss has fully returned, but the paper is also completely covered in scratches from squeegeeing.
When I lith dev/stop/fix/wash and then put the paper upright against something so it can dry in a vertical way (just let the water drip/slide off and then dry without touching the surface), there are no visible damages to the surface, not even from my print tongs (I use stainless steel tongs with those transparent plastic grip-pads).
I use the same stop (FomaCitro 1+19), fix (FomaFix 1+5) and wash as in my regular printing process (washing for around 2 minutes in relatively cold water, approx. 12-16°C if I should guess).

The developer is freshly mixed from a recently purchased Easy Lith kit, no old brown added, 1+1+50.
I have warmed it up to 27°C just before starting development (checked with IR thermometer, which I had verified against my regular thermometer) and this cooled off to around 25°C during development, but it seems to happen at colder temperatures as well.
Stop and fix are at room temperature, currently around 16-17°C in my DR.
Since I don't have any tray warmer I pour back the dev in a bottle and warm the bottle in a large bucket of hot water between development rounds.
Development took about 8 to 10 minutes every time and it happened with every print from this box so far (6 prints).
The matte Portriga-speed can be squeegee'd without leaving any streaks or marks, even when looked at with a magnifying glass.

Now with normal developer (I usually use either Kodak T-Max or Adotol Konstant), there are no problems when squeegeeing the same Brovira-Speed Glossy prints after they're finished.
Only after Lith development the surface turns truly matte and dries full of scratch marks.

Does this sound familiar to any of you?
Does it happen with other glossy papers as well when Lith printing, is it simply this type of paper, the age of the paper, something that's different from regular chemistry in the Lith developer, or could it be the extended wet processing time of the lith process itself?
Can I do anything about it?
Any help or hints would be highly appreciated!
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