Developing Film at Home Without the Reel Jamming

Developing your own film starts in the dark. Before any chemistry goes near it, the roll has to be wound onto a spiral reel by feel. It happens inside a changing bag or a blacked-out bathroom. For a lot of people, that's the step that goes wrong.

Paterson's plastic reels are the standard ones, and the ones these threads are about. You feed the film in at the outer edge and ratchet it round. On a good day it takes a minute. On a humid one the film grabs, stops, and won't go forward or back.

If your film keeps jamming on the plastic reel, the darkroom regulars in r/AnalogCommunity have a fix, and it isn't a technique. It's a different kind of reel. It comes with one real cost, which we'll get to.

Why does film jam on a plastic reel?

Someone who'd used a Paterson tank for years laid it out in a thread called "I don't know why I didn't try stainless steel reels sooner". They live in the UK, where it's humid most of the year, and load inside a dry bag. Warm hands, damp air and film "isn't a good mix".

Their estimate was that one in five rolls gave them trouble. The film "would grab and jam even with clean dry reels". Everything in the bag went humid, film included.

They're not the only one. Another commenter has "the same issues" with the standard plastic reels. Someone who started darkroom work in 1977 never got the hang of plastic reels at all.

How does a steel reel avoid the jam?

It loads the other way round. On a plastic reel the film goes in at the outer edge and spirals inwards, so every turn pushes more film ahead of it. On a steel reel you clip the end of the film to the centre and wind outwards. Nothing is ever being shoved.

Somebody asked what "load in reverse" meant, and another commenter explained. The film "starts at the center of the reel and spirals out towards the edge". The 35mm reels have a metal clip in the middle that you hook the sprocket holes onto. The 120 reels use a small spring clip instead.

The reels that thread is about are made by Hewes, a small engineering firm in Bedfordshire, England. Its website looks untouched since the nineties. The Hewes 120 reel is on Amazon. The 35mm one isn't, at least not in the US. We'll come to where it is.

Here's what the person who started the thread found after switching:

Enter stainless reels. I've got some Hewes stainless reels in 35mm and 120. I've loaded a dozen rolls with them now and it's zero issue. Quicker and less jammed up rolls when developing. You don't "push" the film on, you load it onto the reels in reverse. No chance of jamming.
u/leekyscallion, in r/AnalogCommunity

The same kitchen by day, from further back: Digby sits on the sofa with his eyes shut and a small smile, winding a scrap roll of film onto a steel spiral, a cat asleep beside him and the plastic tank still on the table. — Practise in the light first, with a roll you don't mind losing.

Why Hewes, and not any steel reel?

Steel reels have a mixed reputation, and the thread explains why. A lot of the cheap ones are secondhand and slightly bent, so "people get frustrated and give up immediately", as one commenter put it. The same commenter's verdict on the Hewes 35mm reels was two words: "top notch".

Another was blunter: "they are the best", with Nikkor and Kindermann sharing second place.

A commenter who's run a steel tank for nearly forty years, with Hewes and Kindermann reels, says the film "practically loads itself".

People who've loaded film for a living back that up. One loaded twenty to thirty rolls every morning in a San Francisco lab in the nineties, and can still feel the steel reels in their hands.

Another wound fifty-plus rolls a day at a commercial lab, on every type of steel reel going, and says "you could never force me to go back to plastic".

The build is the difference. The Hewes 120 reels have "big chunky wires" that let the film find its way without kinking. That owner finds them even easier to load than the 35mm ones.

Cheap steel reels can also be smaller than they look. Someone bulk-loading long rolls found their cheap reels took about 37 frames and no more, while their Hewes reels had taken 38 without complaint.

They cost more than plastic. Nobody in the thread pretends otherwise, and nobody regrets it.

Once I purchased a couple reels, I was hooked. More expensive but savings in frustration well exceeds the initial purchase price.
u/kleinishere, in r/AnalogCommunity

Will Hewes reels fit a Paterson tank?

No, and this is the cost of switching. A second thread asked exactly that, and four people gave the same answer.

A Paterson tank is light-tight because of its centre post. The lid locks onto a tube that runs up through the reels, and that tube is what keeps the light out. Hewes reels have a smaller core, and the post doesn't fit through them. One reply put it plainly: "You need a steel tank."

So budget for a stainless tank as well, if you don't already own one. Steel tanks, at least, are simple things. One commenter reckons they "only differ by their lids" and uses cheap ones with no trouble. The person who started that thread asked twice for a brand that fits Hewes reels. They got a "yes" and no name, so we won't invent one either.

One wrinkle: Hewes makes more than one version of its reels. Alongside the standard reel, Freestyle Photo lists versions cut for Jobo 1500 and Jobo 2500 tanks, and one for Jobo 1500 and Paterson tanks. The owner who was hooked bought the Jobo 1500 version, which is a different reel from the one on Amazon.

One reply in the tank thread named a Hewes reel with a one inch core as the exception to the tank rule. Nobody in these threads has run one in a Paterson, so treat that as a lead to check with the seller, not a promise.

What steel gets wrong

One owner's answer is scratches. The person with the too-small cheap reels went back to plastic in the end. Steel tanks and reels "tend to be easier to scratch film with", in their experience. That's one person's word, so weigh it as that. It's also the only reason anyone in these threads gave for going back.

120 film is the trickier size on any steel reel. The commenter who started in 1977 says it's more flexible, so there's a greater chance of bending it. Bend it and you get a crescent-shaped mark on the negative.

Another commenter doesn't find Hewes "as necessary with 120", since most steel 120 reels load fine as long as the spirals are parallel. The 35mm reel, with its clip, is where the Hewes name earns the most.

The advice from 1977 still holds. Take a roll of exposed film, sit on the couch with the TV on, and practise loading the steel reel without looking at it. Do it in the light until your hands know the way, then do it in the bag.

What to check before you switch

Your tank. A stainless tank with a light-tight lid and no centre post. Any brand; the threads name none. If all you own is a Paterson, this is the extra purchase.
Which Hewes reel. The standard reel is the one for a plain steel tank. The Jobo-specific versions are different reels, listed separately, so read the listing before you pay.
New, not vintage. The bent secondhand reels are where steel got its bad name. Hewes still sells new, direct by email or through camera shops.
A practice roll. Sacrifice one roll and load it in daylight until you can do it with your eyes shut.

The same kitchen table at night, the changing bag folded to one side, and Digby holding a strip of developed negatives up to the lamp with a small smile, a steel tank with its lid off beside him.

Buy the size you shoot most, and a tank to put it in. For 120 that's the Hewes 120 reel on Amazon. The 35mm reel isn't listed on Amazon in the US at the moment, but B&H, Adorama and Freestyle Photo all carry it. Then spend one evening on the couch with a spare roll before the first real one goes in the bag.