What To Use To Display Watermarks

Other than the expensive watermark fluid I can buy from various companies what else can be used to display watermarks and not ruin the stamp or my health? And, it there is another option what is the best way to put this on a stamp, with a q-tip?

Thanks
Chris

I purchased a Morley Bright Inst-a-Tector off ebay about six months ago and after trying it a few dozen times on british commonwealth stamps I have to advise against it. I know many who love these, but for me I found it extremely difficult to see the watermark. I'm not sure if my ink satchel needs to be replaced or if these things are just over hyped. Try one at your own risk.

About 1/3 of the time, just turning the stamp over on a dark surface, I see the wmk. Obviously, if this works- good!
If not, and I really want to see the wmk if it makes a difference with catalogue number, I will put the stamp down on the wmk tray and cover the stamp using a dropper from the wmk fluid bottle. That works perhaps 1/3 again very quickly. The last 1/3 of stamps can be a problem; sometimes I eventually figure it out, sometimes not. :-(
Your results may vary. :-)

If it is a relatively inexpensive stamp, and I have more than one copy, one of the stamps might show the wmk well.

I've found that the wmk identification even from dealers can be wrong, so one should check the wmk IMHO.

I use Ronsonol lighter fluid in a well-ventilated area -- it works very well and hasn't yet harmed a stamp that I've dipped.

I place the stamp face down in a black tray and then drop enough of the fluid onto the stamp to wet it sufficiently to either see the watermark or determine that there is none.

If you have a scanner and a basic graphics program, there's a good tutorial from PostmasterGS on how to extract a watermark without any chemicals:
https://goscf.com/t/15246

I had to repeatedly refer to the instructions the first couple times, but then I got the hang of it.

One added advantage, once you've identified the watermark, you can save the scans in an "electronic album" of sorts.

Give it a try,
KirkS

I do this.

WoW! Thank all for the replies so quickly. I don't currently own a scanner and run Linux vs Windows so my graphics program is GIMP. I may have to break down and get one sooner or later but for now I think I'll try the 'laying the stamp on a dark surface' since my work table is black surfaced. If that doesn't work I'll give the lighter fluid method a try.

Thanks again for all the adivce
Chris

For used stamps, and depending on the stamp. some just use water on the stamp on a dark surface of course. Face down too also. I think John mentioned he does this with Australia King George V (KGV) side-faces.

Thanks, I'll give that a try also.

Stating the obvious here but, If your going to use water make sure it's a used stamp!

Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that.

Chris:

FYI -- GIMP will do what you need. Just keep your eye out for a decent scanner. They're fairly inexpensive these days.

Or an even better idea, keep your eye out for a friend who is buying a new/better/faster scanner and claim his old one

Kirk

The scanner model (Epson v350) I used in the example is currently going for about $35-50 on ebay.

Two things to keep in mind about watermarks are the impression and design.

Some watermarks are very well impressed and others are not. Stamps from Germany or UK and commonwealth are normally very well impress and often visible to the eye. The U.S. double line (wmk 191) is normally pretty well impressed but the single line (wmk 190) is not.

The second thing is the design. Most watermarks withh have all or a large portion of the design on the stamp which are easier to determine. Some designs will only leave a small portion of the design on any single stamp. The U.S. watermarks can be just 2 small segement of the watermark. Some watermarks are a large design on the sheet where a single stamp may only have 1 or 2 indescript lines.

With the US single line having weak impression and some stamps having only a very small amount of the watermark on it can be challenging.

All the techniques discussed here are good but the question that you need to answer is what types of watermarks are on the stamps you collect. The method outlined by PostmasterGS is fantastic and it allows you to scam and even document watermark anomilies, but it dose not work well for very weak impressions like on the US singleline.

Being a U.S. only collector, I use Ronsonal and I have two scaled watermark templates with cut shields which work fantastic FOR MY COLLECTING AREA.

EDIT typo

Thanks Russ, some very good information. My collection actually started over 50 years ago but I just restarted it again earlier this year after picking up my original stamp album while visiting my mom. I've got quite a few US stamps and also stamps from another 94 countries. On my German stamps for instance I'm definitely going to have to check watermarks since that will determine what Scott # I'll be using.

Thanks again and appreciate the help

Chris

Chris, I run the latest Ubuntu with a 2-3 year old Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 scanner. The XSane image software works well with the scanner. Irregardless of which brand of scanner you get, I have found that googling "Linux driver for **put hardware name here**" frequently provides a number of sites for drivers for Linux OS.

Marty