The Plan

Welcome to the forum, Bearwithfish.
Maybe you should consider starting a collection of stamps with bears, there are plenty of them out there.
Here's a couple with fish...





Steve

soaking? warm water and patience-- and use some blotting paper to soak up the water

great replies from all thank you again and again as I begin my journey... they are US stamps mixed and there were about 300 in the bag... I also found hinges at the store and an searching for a reference book the big box book store has all stamp related materials on prepay only and I would rather look through one before investing... kinda old fashioned that way....
my wife earned her minor in womens studies and while she attended I was very interested I her readings and took a few of the classes myself and found a wealth of information to pass on to our children,,,, this particular collection is going to help stress the importance of being Independent and realizing nothing is handed to you unless yo earn your own way..
as for pix I need a little time to prepare things to show everyone then yes I will post.. perhaps in a few days... LOL glad everyone likes pix here because this will help me in figuring things out.

Hey bearwithfish.

When considering cardstock or paper for your album make sure the stuff you get is archival( acid and lignin free)

Just sayin

Dianne

had not even considered this ... good thing you said something.. the card stock I have is out of the pack so I am not sure , the next stock I buy will be for sure...

I had a good idea the other day to protect the stamps .. I used to collect cards for a trading card game. now for these I used sleeves to keep them free of oils and dirt... the sleeve is simply plastic so I figured I could trim them to the size I want and hinge them and slide in the stamp.... this wold save the initial cost of buying covers... giving me time to grow the collection with out a need to wait LOL a patient person I am not...LOL

i neglected to ask if any one knows of a printable perforation guide? counting them buy hand is a pain in the butt...

ok so I soaked my first batch today!! here is a tip; older stamps = require care but are fairly easy... new stamps with self stick = PITB ... good thing I used ones I had duplicates of.. I tore up a few before deciding not to continue... not being one to give up though I tried again LOL and got one done well (long soak and gentle pulling. re-soak and turn over to work off the last of the gun gently so as to not scratch up the stamp.. worked well but still a PITB....

There is one here:
http://geocities.comlu.com/DPKNA%28...t6/tools.htm

However, after downloading and printing it myself (in pdf format 29 kb) I found it was much easier (for me) to use a see-though plastic line type on the lines of the Stanley Gibbons Instanta (made with thicker plastic, more durable).

Advertised as PERFORATION GAUGE "PERFECT" GAUGE - UNI-SAFE on ebay by boscastle.
http://myworld.ebay.com/boscastle/?...=p4340.l2559
$2.75 + shipping at this time.

This one (and the Stanley Gibbons one) only go down to perf 10 so for the newer US die-cut perfed stamps with perfs at 6, 7, 8 or 9 you would need one made for those (if you wanted one) available from
http://www.adminware.ca/esg/perfgauge.htm
(Made for the Canadian new coil stamps but, hey, if it works . . .)

They want mint Canada stamps as payment but I think cash would be OK.(?)

perfect!! thank you puzzler..... I owe you one

You should be aware that there are some stamps (especially the modern, self-adhesive stamps issued from 2008 forward) that WILL NOT soak off paper. These have to be kept with the backing paper on, or the stamp will tear or otherwise get damaged in a soaking process. It's often difficult to know which ones will or will not soak off paper well, so it's sometimes "trial and error". However, this link has been helpful to me for certain issues as they use a "stoplight" signal to identify how well a specific issue may or may not soak off paper based on other collector's experiences:

http://www.virtualstampclub.com/2008usnew.html

great link thank you so much see I learnin :)

There are lots of articles and discussions on here about soaking or floating the newer self adhesive stamps, try different words when searching.

I think there is a Utube video about it also.

Dofferent countries have different gums. Canada mostly come free, some others, I have heard, like new France, are not so easy.

KGV_Collector on here has tried soaking, letting dry and resoaking successfully on newer Australian stamps.

I have not experimented much myself yet but have tons of kiloware to yet tackle so I do pay attention.

There are suggestions of using Vodka or even spraying the paper backs with aur freshener and then using corn starch to dull the remaining gum residue. Again I do not recommend anything as I have so far only used water and a bit of liquid dish soap myself.

i can see the alcohol working but I will stay with water for now as I gain experience perhaps I will attempt something of this nature

Back to your question about a perforation gauge, I have a metal one that I have used for 20 years and it works fine. Here's a link where you can buy a similar one for $3.50:

http://www.kenmorestamp.com/collect...4/185/0/4810

You may or may not be successful with printing off a version from a web site as there are minor differences in the scanning and/or with various printers that could result in the gauge not providing accurate measurements...so you may be better off with buying one to ensure the greatest accuracy.

as I get further in and money gets put in the right way I may just buy that one... I am simply looking for start up solutions with out a major investment LOL as stated else where I am cheap and looking at this more of a hobby than an investment..... I love that link and will save it in my files the have quite a few things I like there thank you