My Diabolic Stamp Soaking Experiment!

nothing wrong with a bit of chemical or two - the things we stamp collectors do some times - we are a strange breed - lol

There had to be something that drove all those hatter's mad.

Better an orange smell than stale cigars...

I totally agree. I got a lot of Indian stamps in the post today. They're still on album pages and they smell like an ashtray. It's into the soak they go! As an ex smoker, I can't for the life of me understand what made me "enjoy" those. I can't stand to be aroudn smokers now. I'm worried about the soaking because a few of these stamps are over 100 years old.

Very interesting thread. I will definitely be trying this technique out on a couple of self adhesive dups. When I have to to test it out, I'll stick my results in here too.

For those of you who have, is goo-gone or ronsonol (or equivalent) more likely to be the answer?

The Disney character stamps can be removed with hot/warm water as well.. not sure why they were subjected to the GG test. The pre-sorted/pre-paid stamp is nasty when soaked in water.

When I tried soaking those Disneys, the gum didn't come off. Sooo, since I HATE Disney, I decided they would make a good test batch!

That last group that were a bit tacky got one more soak in warm water, and they are pretty darn good now. As another test, I took a 2011 US Lunar New Year stamp that was on paper and soaked the back of the paper with Goo Gone. I did this because I have yet to soak one off successfully. Wellp, the stamp came right off of the paper. I let it dry, and it is sticky on the back.

To be continued...

Nells250

One method for taking the sticky off that works well for me is using a cotton square,(Same kind you can get at a drug store), soaked in naptha. You can get the naptha in the paint section of a hardware store. On a hard surface hold the stamp and rub one direction. Turn the stamp around and get that little bit from where you held it on the other side. The cotton can be used a few times before it falls apart. You can also wear non latex gloves if you so desire.

I've never heard of naptha. What is it usually used for?

Naptha- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha

in short, it's used in Moth balls and some octane boosters. also as an alternative to benzene depending on what your doing with it. It is VERY FLAMMABLE!

Naptha..Moth Balls

This is not a recomendation, just for interest.

I just had an interesting idea. Awhile back, I had guests and they bought over a bottle of vodka. Now,
I'm not a big drinker (at least of hard liquor) and the vodka is cheap ($2-"white mischief" made in india).
I wonder if the alcohol in the vodka would work against the self adhesive? I know that when vodka dries, it doesn't leave a smell behind.

A while back there was a thread that mentioned feulite(available only in the Australia area) This had to do with a video on you tube on removing the adhesive. Since I didn't have feulite the next best option was lighter fluid. Well the main ingredient in lighter fluid was naphtha and I thought lighter fluid was too expensive. So I checked out prices for other products that contained naphtha. The paint store had vm&p naphtha at a fair price so that is why I used that. The stuff unstuck the adhesive enough to be scraped off and then rubbed with the cotton to make the rest of the sticky go away.

Agreed that you do not want to use a lot at a time and in a well ventilated area. As mentioned very flammable. But usable for adhesive.