Digital BW, The Print

While I would 
> > like to think it would be dust free I know that is effectively 
> > impossible. 
> > ~Mary
> >
> 
  I gave up on silver film, partly 
> because of the dust problem. 
> 
> Harry
>

It doesn't take much skill to eliminate "dust problems."
Use of a lab will inevitably result in scratches, no matter what
you're experiencing at the moment. 

1) use distilled water, not filtered, for the last change or two of
water (agitating...you do of course use a stainless reel because you
can't properly clean plastic). You can use relatively clean tap water
to mix chems and to do the initial rinses. 

2) use distilled water, not filtered, with 3 drops Photoflo per 500cc
for a few second dip before hanging.

3) hang to dry in a low dust area...in my case, that's a casually
cleaned bathroom, hanging from clips on coat hangers hung in turn on
the shower curtain rod.

Any small amount of dust that remains can be cloned out in
moments...in extreme cases (carelessness) it can be eliminated with
the lightest Photoshop dust/spot setting (which will conserve some
film character that XP2 and color neg films totally lack to begin
with). IMO if you resort to XP2/color neg you might as well go digital
because your detail resolution and tonal scale will be
better...assuming more than 10mp on APS-C and assuming you don't use
inexpensive zooms. 

An important trick is to avoid polyethlene negative sleeves.