Hi

I've printed some recent negs last night in my loft darkroom. Initially
I started out with 12 x 16 resin MG IV and noticed on development a
bronze/silver metallic looking diffuse border surrounded the entire
print, extending about 1cm from the edge. I tried a sheet from the
middle of the pack, same result. It looks a bit like that bronzing you
get on old glass plates, and I noticed when washing the prints that
some of it rubbed off.

So, I tried an MG IV 10 x 8 paper, with same result, but not so
pronounced. I thought I'd foil it (assuming some kind of human fogging
error) by trying an unopened pack of MG IV. This too had the same
effect, but only on one side. It only seems to affect the edges of the
paper, prints looked normal other than this peculiar edge.

Both developer and fixer were from unopened Ilford stock. I wonder if
there is some heating/cooling effect? As I say, darkroom is in loft and
we have had a few cold nights of late. I have a max/min thermometer up
there, and min read 2.2 degrees C. Might have got up to mid to high
30's in the summer. Having said that, I've had a loft darkroom for
about 10 years now, with no problems.

So far I've considered
Fogging by poor handling (unlikely)
Heat/coolling effect
Old paper (none of it more than 1 year)
High Sun spot activity!

Any ideas?

Thanks IA

Stu