Doing some soaking today if anybody sees anything they like i am open to trade. View attachment 3086 View attachment 3087 View attachment 3088 View attachment 3089
Ive found 50 is my max ,because things get a bit messy with the amount of glue in the water..tends to start to turn to a paper mush
I take a single sheet of Newspaper, put the stamps without any gum residue face down on the sheet. I prepare several and put each one on top of the other in a pile of 4 or 5. Before they dry completely I change the drier ones with the more miust ones. The climate needs to plau along too. If to dry they will curl hence the different layers. Alas I soak only just a few now but the experience of soaking tens of thousands in the past does pay dividends.
Instead of kitchen towel? Newspaper is still contaminated with unrinsed fixer, that is why insects do not like it.
Removing paper from stamps is just a small part of the exercise. Many collectors achieve the same result using different methods or tools. Some stamps clear-off paper easily (excluding self-adhesives) some are just suicidal, they stick to the paper and get damaged trying the paper removal. The main exercise while 'cleaning' should be eliminating defective or damaged stamps. Flaws or odd printing deviation as well as watermark identification should form part of washing - sorting. Removal of all gum is essential or any other organic material like saliva or food remnants. Just think, one day they may be able to create a human clone from the saliva used to affix the stamp.
When dealing with self-adhesives, it seems like I manage to get 20-30 stamps removed from their envelope substrate; then I get tired of the routine of irrigating the individual stamps with naptha, spraying with the citrus room freshener, and wiping the adhesive off the stamps to the point where it doesn't stick to anything. Sometimes, absolute removal of the 'stickiness' requires the light application of baby talcum powder.
I think because of stamps getting less and less usage it may be a good idea to collect just the best cancelled ones on cover, not single stamps.
The latest mails I had received, I just let the stamps on the envelops so that I could start having few stamps on covers. That was a lot of stamps in the photo, so definitely it was fun!
When stamps get less the value goes up - look at old stamps. Of course stamps en masse or from not favoured Countries the value hardly moves up. Remember, the stamp on the cover always makes the cover more 'valuable' than just the stamp on its own.
I have found that self adhesives vary dependant upon country of origin. English stamps are still easily removed from paper, as long as the water used is nice and hot. Obviously the Royal Mail have created a gum that is still fairly delicate once heated up. I tried the same process with a French stamp and it it was hopeless.
Pure Citrus on the back of the piece teases the stamp to a point where it can be peeled off "fairly" easily. Rolling the backside to get remainder gunk off is where the danger is. Putting talc on it after makes that sticky mess disappear - for the most part. The process, however, is tedious, compared to water activated gum soaking. I've soaked small tubs of stamps (remove aniline ink or the usual colorful suspects) but as been said space is a premium and cats are devious! Getting nice, clean stamps is an endeavor not for the weak of constitution especially dealing with "better" stamps. Those get the one-off or few at a time treatment. I like clean stamps. I'd prefer not to have 500 pounds of extra paper hanging out in a bulging album unless the stamp is on a piece that should not be extracted. Time and general wisdom about the hobby brings us to that realization. Yell my way if you must, I can handle it. I've soaked some serious stuff in my days and have lost a few items as well. Tracy
