Peroxide Bath And A Question

Before:



15 minutes in hydrogen peroxide, hand rinse and then 15 minutes soaking in water.

After:



Question is would this improve anymore doing it again? I was amazed at how far it came after 1 bath

Wow- what an improvement- it looks like decades worth of grime was removed. Did you use straight peroxide, or was it diluted? I would have thought that peroxide would bleach the color out, but it certainly appears to have made it more vibrant!

I soaked it 100% peroxide in my watermark tray for about 15 minutes in the dark

If you're using the stuff straight from the bottle its probably 3% peroxide and 97% water. Its great for orange stamps like this.

Matt

If you're using the stuff straight from the bottle its probably 3% peroxide and 97% water. Its great for orange stamps like this.

Matt

Sorry about the triple post. Ouch!

Matt

You're right Matt - didn't even read the bottle lol

3%

thanks

Dipping in hydrogen peroxide alters the surface ink, converting the sulfur contamination at the surface layer into a relatively transparent layer so the underlying original ink can be seen. It also produces a very minor "bleaching" effect and does make changes to the paper surface. It's a trade-off between these effects.

Also, if you leave it in solution too long, you can actual lift off sections of that relatively transparent layer that you converted. When that happens, you get a really clean stamp with very fresh color, but because the passivating layer is lost, it can blacken again when exposed to sulfur pollutants in the air.

I don't condone using this method, but I would tell you that 15 minutes is much longer than is practical. Putting it again into a fresh peroxide solution is not advised, as it would only push you slowly toward the "damage" end of the process and also makes the altered stamp much easier to detect. Fortunately, hydrogen peroxide is relatively unstable and converts to simple water over time.

I've mentioned this before -- the chemical processes used to recover stamp colors are physically and chemically altering the original stamp. As such, the alteration can be detected with the proper equipment. There are different views on whether this type of "cleaning" is acceptable or not. Stamp collecting is different from most other hobbies, in that restoration is often frowned upon unless it is an extremely rare stamp. I think that is unfortunate, but that is the reality. Depending on the method, restored/repaired stamps are often worth a very small fraction of the full retail value. Just like regummed stamps are treated as no-gum stamps in terms of retail value, so restored/repaired stamps are also treated as damaged stamps in terms of retail value. The real problem is not with retail value, since most of us aren't collecting for financial reasons. You want to be careful that your reputation (or someone else's reputation further down the line) doesn't take a hit.

So have your fun, but keep these things in mind if you want to pursue it further. Document that stamps that you have altered, so there will be no misunderstandings in the future. My opinion.

Regarding soaking stamps in peroxide - a few years back I did an experiment where I cut some damaged stamps on paper in half and placed one half in a normal water bath and the other half in a peroxide bath. After about half an hour soaking and then some drying time I have to say the results were about the same. I'll have to check my stockbooks to see if I can find the test results but my point is that a simple water bath might be as helpful as a chemical cleaning. I soak many of my used but somewhat dingy stamps in water and then place in a drying book and often the results are impressive. Nevertheless, nice result and thanks for sharing!

Peroxide disintegrates into water over time, especially in sunlight/heat. That is why it is sold in non-translucent containers. Keep it in the fridge and it will last for years, and also helps to maintain the solution ratio.

The primary purpose of the hydrogen peroxide bath for this stamp is to convert the sulfur pollutants into a semi-transparent layer. It only applies to certain orange/yellow stamp pigments. You cannot do that with plain water.

how about adding a dab of mild soap (Ivory?) to the water? is this "chemically treating" the stamp? I have quite a few stamps that literally have dirt and dust on them; water alone doesn't do the trick, but water and a little soap does wonders. I then rinse them in two separate plain water baths, and they look so much better.

Warm water and maybe a little bit of liquid body wash NOT dish-soap. I have found that most dish-soap, for whatever reason, has chemical whiteners in them. I too have experimented through the years and that seems to be the best and safest bet. Just make sure you rinse them in a clean water bath before pressing.