Experience Soaking Off Paper 2011 US Issues

For anyone interested in how some recent PSA commemorative issues react to soaking off paper, my experience has been that they soak off pretty well, giving it a little patience and time, as these examples suggest:



The nearly illegible spray-on cancels rendered them useless on cover, so I decided to clip and soak them to see what happens.

Maybe others will benefit from my experience with these examples.

thanks,

I appreciate the info.

Dave N.

Your method wt1, please?

wt1,

Here are the ones I am able to remove from paper. I think they fall into your category. My trick is to soak them in hot water for about 20-25 minutes. Then I slowly peel back the paper from the corners and edges. And again I soak them in new hot water for about another 20-25 minutes and then the rest of the paper will came off. But usually a center piece of glue will have to be carefully picked/peeled off.

I just noticed the crease on the Tiffany lamp, not sure if my process caused that.

I pretty much follow raywrio's method. Lukewarm water works fine. Truth be known, in the old days of WAG (water activated gum) one might consider a stamp "thinned" using this method. However, in the modern era of PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) you almost have to remove the layer of adhesive in order for the stamp not to stick to an album or stockbook or whatever.

As for the US regular issues (and I've tried this with the new 20 cent George Washington stamp, too) if you're very careful, you can sometimes peel off the stamp from the envelope without soaking it at all. The result will be a stamp that still has some stickiness to it, but I've found that I can carefully use a large pink pencil eraser to remove the tackiness of the gum without damaging it. SOMETIMES it will even work for those pesky 42-cent Flag stamps and some of the bulk rate stamps that simply do not soak well off paper, if at all.

Another small hint: If you're trying to soak off only a couple of stamps at a time and wonder about ways to dry them, I recently tried a torn up window envelope (from my utility bills.) If you place the tacky side down on the cellophane "window" portion of the envelope and let it dry somewhat, you can usually peel it right off just as if you used a paper towel or sponge. Of course, if you laid it on any kind of paper, you'd have to soak it again as the adhesive would re-stick to the paper.

Not impressed with results, (however, appreciate the contribution)
The 42c flag is just not soakable for mine,
the gum cannot be dispensed with,
cutting a square is the only route for me.

Raywrio I i have soaked about 20 of those lamps and not had a crease in them in fact I have a number of them perfect if you want a few email me and I wll send them to you ...

wt1 - I have had good experiance with these also and so far only found about 3 I could not soak off not sure why...

Rod222 if you want a few of those 42c flags (with and with out price on them) let me know I got a few off paper I dont mind sharing :)

I am currently in the process of soaking a large batch of US stamps this week...am finding inconsistent results with the same stamp, some are turning out quite nicely and others just a big ole sticky mess!

Thanks for the tip about using a warmer temperature of water, I think this has helped somewhat!

I finally got the hang of soaking Australian stamps, they are actually kind of fun now to soak , but dang! The US stamps are challenging - I am happy that the bag I bought has many repeats.

Appreciate all of the tips posted

I have found that warm water causes some stamps to become "speckled". I apply a couple of drops of Ronsonol (naphtha) to the envelope to soften the gum and carefully peel the stamp off. I then apply a few more drops to the gum on the back of the stamp and gently wipe the residue off with a paper towel.

I use boiling water straight from the kettle with no deleterious effects. The hot water makes most of the peel&stick gums quite soft and they can easily be removed by rolling them off the stamp. I do all the de-papering while the water is still quite hot. The stamps are then placed in a pure bath of clean cold water before drying.

There are very few stamps that cannot be recovered in this way. I have also found that the same issues will give differing results, it might be related to the batch of gum or the age before it was stuck on the envelope or the conditions (e.g. temperature and humidity)that the envelope and stamp were subjected to after posting.

Some issues that cannot be de-papered using hot water, I use a fairly slow method that uses an organic solvent (called 'Shellite' in Aus, very similar to lighter fluid)... there is a video on Youtube on the process, I'll post the link once I find it again.

:-)

Here is that Youtube link,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWMcVYgIZjM

I hope it helps

:-)

Hi Russ,

Ronsonol, is that like lighter fluid that you refill older style cigarette lighters?

Dave.

Dave, yes Ronsonol is lighter fluid brand name, it been around a long time.

Bearwithfish, Thanks but I have lots of those already that one was the first one I found in my collection.

Australian Perspective :

Chased all around town for Fuelite (none in aust it seems)
Tried "Shellite" and Ronsonol R55
could not source any of those either:

I checked on wiki, and found Shellite is aka "White Spirits"
I purchased 1 litre at my hardware
(sorry ...no price, I booked it up on account)

I purchased "Diggers white spirits"
propaganda says, dry cleaning, carpet cleaning and spot remover

Nothing about stamps

I played the video shown a few posts before
and practised on two 2010 fish die cuts

The routine worked flawlessly, the stamps just about
fell off the backing paper,
and my small engineers steel rule [6"] was ideal for scraping the grunge.

Both needed a wipe with a cloth to remove all skerricks of gum.

Not sure about the quality, or purity of "Diggers"
white spirit, it seemed rather oily to me, but at
least it is a start.
The stamps took a while to dry via evaporation,
but now dry the backs are as clean and as smooth as plastic.
Quite pleasing.

The white spirits is toxic and flammable,
so all the relevant warnings apply.
(keep out of reach of children)

The big test will be the 42c US definitives,
they are shockers, and sundry etiquettes up until now have
been a no-no.

Thanks also to the NZ Youtube author...great stuff!

For the really difficult ones I use alcohol, after several drinks I don't care

I found Shellite at Bunnings for about $7.00 a litre bottle. It seems to work on any peel and stick issue so far.

It is also an excellent fluid for viewing watermarks on older stamps.

But I have not found any solvent that will remove all traces of biro/texta defacing hand cancels.

alex