Help Please - Removing Old Hinges

Hi All,
Got some stamps today on an old album pages, possible 1920's, the hinges are pretty secure and I want to remove them.
Is it just a good soaking and hope they peel? Any advice/suggestions appreciated.
thanks

Hi shamrock.
Soaking would do it, but even a q-tip with a bit of warm water would probably coax those old hinges off. Good luck.

Soaking usually works, but for stubborn ones, soak, then VERY carefully use a Xacto knife and fry a corner of the hinge parallel to the plane of the stamp, and peel it back (while still wet. Seems to work without stamp damage.

You don't state if these are mint or used stamps. You might not want to mess with the backs if they are older mint issues.

Thanks for the advice guys, half way through and taking a break for a while.
All old used issues. Dampened the backs with warm water using q-tips, and slowly removed with a tweezer.
Some had two hinges, one doubled over the other, and they were really stuck hard to the album page - built to last!
thanks again.

I too have a Scott's International volume 1, with a lot of stamps before 1930. Some are MINT. I've been considering taking an exacto knife and trimming them, but still leaving part of the hinge so I don't soak or damage the stamp.

I thought I would then mount those in those little black-backed envelops....(newbie, don't know what they are called).

Is that acceptable?

I've seen in some research that some people still hinge stamps.....which is surprizing to me, but I want to preserve these as best I can. Am I better off leaving these along?

I also have a bunch of blank sheets with mint stamps hinged to them and numbers under them......I want to mount these as well, since the paper they are on was scrap from my Dad's days at Syracuse U..

Most of the hinges and the gum from the hinges I take off my used KGVs happens before the stamp becomes saturated with the water they are soaked in. I have tried soaking damaged stamps of all kinds to see if the ink is unstable before I risk a good stamp to soaking.

The most trouble I have had with the hard to get off hinges is the gum that is left behind. When these stamps are wet they look clean but when they dry the stamp curls to the point of creasing the stamp.

I will not print my opinion on "sticky tape" hinges as I would like to remain a SCF member.