Contact Printing: Azo, graded and mc papers

I was wondering if anyone has experience contact printing with enlarging papers as opposed to Azo. I am playing with Azo at present, but am curious to hear what others may have experienced with graded and variable contrast enlarging papers. A specific question that comes to mind is the usefullness of variable contrast papers for contact printing a pyro neg. I know that the stain of a pyro developed negative is supposed to mimic the action of a mc filter, especially in the highlights. I wonder if this holds true when contact printing (without any filters)?

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Thanks,

Paul G.

When I'm at school, like at the moment, I don't have a set-up to do

contact printing on AZO like I do at home, so I just contact on my

usual paper, Luminos Flexicon FB paper. While the prints I make on

the Luminos don't necessarily have the same feel as the ones I get on

AZO, I find that I can make prints that pretty damn good. Pyro stain

does help in the highlights, I've found. Last week I printed a

negative of one of the greens at OU that was partially in shade and

partially in direct sun. There was a sun-lit white door that printed

perfectly while still holding good shadow detail in the rest of the

print. I've photographed the same scene in the past using non-

staining developers and always had trouble in the printing because of

the high contrast range. So yes, I do think that pyro stain does

have a noticable effect. One nice thing about pyro negatives in

general combined with variable contrast paper and filters is that it

makes it easier to burn down highlights or shadows without affecting

the other. If my shadows are where I want them, and the highlights

are a little high, I can put in a grade 0 filter and burn them down

without changing the shadows. At least that's how it works for me.

I'm sure others use different techniques and have had different

experiences.