cindy_stokes

If I understand your question right...

You'll get white spots/lines on prints from anything on

or in your neg that is opaque. Dust and fibers

settling on the neg are the common culprits causing

white spots and squiggles. Use a soft

brush or blower just before printing to eliminate

most of these. Don't blow with your breath because you'll

almost always blow some spit onto the neg, creating

a worse problem. Straight lines are almost always

scratches on the negative itself. There are goopy solutions

that you can put on the neg to "fill in" these scratches

that some people use. I don't like putting anything

foreign on my negs and don't use this stuff.

For any white spots/lines that are in your final prints,

you can use SpoTone and a very fine brush (000 to 00000) to

to hide them. See varous printing

books for descriptions of techniques (e.g., A. Adams,

The Print). With some practice it's not very hard.

I have recently tried out Ilford Delta 400 for

similar reasons to yours. I like it a lot. I find

it nicer than TMAX 400 in terms of grain and simplicity

of use (perhaps just more forgiving

of shooting/processing problems). Give it a try, or

TMAX 400 if you're a meticulous processor.