Hinge Moistening Tool?

Thanks again for the insights.

Hopefully, I'll get started building my Steiner page albums this weekend and will put your suggestions to use. I'm so looking forward to getting back in the game!

This thread inspired me to look for a more controlled way so was looked for something while shopping.

The longer one on left came from a crafting set of brushes, bouncers, etc. and the right was a Covergirl makeup tool. I did a quick experiment and the makeup one can place a small dot amount depends on pressure and contact time.

I've found these little beauties are perfect for moistening hinges and mounts. I also use them for dabbing a bit of hinge remover on the backs of stamps in preparation for removing remnants of hinges past. You can find them in the model-building aisle of your local big box hobby purveyor. Some out there might have tongues made for pinpoint accuracy, but mine is of the more lick-spittle, drooly type.

What actual evidence is there over the last 150 years of stamp collecting that using saliva to moisten stamp hinges causes problems? I've never heard of this, but I have seen hundreds of stamp albums and removed stamps from dozens of them with no evidence whatsoever that anyone's saliva did any damage whatsoever. But, believe me, I'm happy to be educated about what this danger involves if there's some evidence to look at.

Yes, "licking" is not really the right word for what you do to a stamp hinge. The idea is to very lightly moisten it, as lightly as possible. One -- ahem -- "technique" I've found helpful with moistening stamp hinges is to swallow and take a breath to dry out your mouth just a bit before you moisten the hinge. The idea is that a "dry" tongue works best, never a wet tongue. Ideally, you dab your tongue against the hinge rather than "licking". I actually have a little home science to back up my claim since I did a little hinge test for my own use, originally to find out if one brand was better. I mounted all major brands of hinges I could find onto album pages. I let the hinges dry overnight. Then I removed every one of them to see how they'd do. The result: All major brands of hinges sold today are exactly the same. They all held well. They all ripped the album page at least a little. None was better. None was worse. Not much of a surprise there.

Then, I decided to do a second test to see what moisture level was best. I was concerned that hinges glued stamps to the page to such an extent that they were difficult to remove later. Many people say that hinges tear both album pages and the back of stamps when the stamps are later removed.

So, test #2: Using only one brand of hinges, I moistened six hinges to different degrees -- from almost dry to pretty wet. I did this for a few rows of hinges from dry to wet in each row. The least moistened hinges were only lightly dabbed, wetting much less than half of the hinge that would go on the page. I used a slight dabbing rather than "licking". On the wet end of the hinge spectrum, I actually did lick half the hinge. I then pressed each hinge firmly onto the album page for a second to be sure each had a chance to attach itself securely.

After waiting a day for the hinges to dry, what I found surprised me. The heavily moistened hinges were very hard to remove from the page and nearly always ripped the paper or the stamp when they were removed. I suspect this may be the source of the claim that hinges ruin stamps -- over-moistening the hinge may be the cause. They were too heavily glued down to be removed without ripping the paper. The hinges moistened least by being only slightly dabbed with moisture were easy to remove. They came off the page (and off the stamp) with absolutely no damage at all. I'd never really thought about how much moisture I used on hinges, but this proved that too much was not good.

I also didn't find that the lightly-moistened hinges "held" noticeably less effectively than the others. I shook the page and flicked the stamps a bit before I tried removing any of them from the page to see if any would fall off. None did. It stands to reason, though, that gluing stamps to the page by wetting hinges heavily would hold them more firmly. But you'll pay a price for that when you try to remove the stamp later. And since lightly-moistened hinges held just fine, why do that?

Moral: Stamp hinges hold stamps just fine, and they can be removed later and shouldn't damage your stamps if little moisture is used.

We're in the midst of an era of "hinge hatred" in which nearly everyone invests in stamp mounts, but not hinges. This may be better for OG stamps. But for some, it's an issue that an individual stamp mount costs upwards of 10 cents each. That's not cheap, especially times a few thousand stamps. Are mounts really worth it for used stamps or stamps with a hinge mark on the back? The average cost of random stamps (kiloware or stamps in used albums) is about 10 cents each, in my experience. That means mounts doubles the cost of mounting a common stamp -- 10 cents a stamp plus 10 cents a mount. Hinges cost much less. Even those expensive old high-quality stamp hinges like Dennison cost only 1-2 cents each. And modern hinges cost only a fraction of that, half a cent each or less. Mounting 10,000 stamps in mounts will cost you about $1000 just for the mounts. Mounting those stamps with hinges will cost less than $100 (even ess if you use modern hinges). Worth considering.

Just don't "lick" your hinges. Moisten very lightly. Swallow. Breathe. Moisten lightly.

I wouldn't use a painters' brush to moisten hinges. You're not supposed to "wet" the hinge at all, but just moisten it very slightly. A brush can carry a great deal of water, and you won't even know it. You risk over-wetting the hinge or the back of the stamp if you use a brush. There's nothing precise about brushing water with a brush. Your hinge is just going to get wet, but you won't know how wet.

Ideally you don't even want to moisten the entire third of the hinge you're attaching to the stamp -- just a small amount of it. How can you possibly do that with even a small brush? The advantage of using your tongue is that you know exactly how much moisture you're applying since you can feel it. You don't know that with a brush.

Sponges sometimes get used for licking the back of stamps when putting them onto envelopes. I can't see how that applies to hinges, though, which is an entirely different thing. You don't want to "wet" very much of a hinge at all. These both seem like going in the wrong direction.

Moistening hinges with your finger might work since you can feel the moisture better on your finger. But not nearly as much as your tongue which is far more sensitive. You want to know how much moisture you're applying and not just guess at it. Less is better. Don't moisten the hinge heavily. Don't even moisten the entire surface of the part of the hinge you're trying to get wet -- just a portion of it. Very lightly. Those little sponge dabbers may be a good second choice, though, but only if they carry just a little moisture onto the hinge. If they deposit actual drops of water, however, that's not good.

This is from a 1938 Stanley Gibbons catalogue



Bobby DLR

I added a sponge to my set up and used it over the last few days. It may application more consistent but time will tell if they pop off easily. I was transferring some older stamps I applied and I got a 80% clean pop using Supersafe brand hinges. I tried removing some I applied a couple days ago and looks like it takes several more days to cure. I keep them in a binder with a slip case/

I found this link for Sandafayre videos on all matters regarding stamps, they have one for what they claim to be the correct way to hinge a stamp, quite interesting.

https://www.sandafayre.com/videos

Excellent video!
The process I use, for my preferred hinge (Prinz)

However NEVER use my tongue, use my finger, best way to guage "tackiness"

The proof in the pudding, is the ability to "Peel" a Prinz hinge off, without it grabbing.

I especially liked the evidence of the dextrous use of the "long pointies" stamp tongs, my favourite and adored, Philatelic tool.

I started out licking my hinges and it turned my tongue brown!
I use the tip of my pinkie finger now.

That's it !
just moisten with the inside of your lip, no slobber
Then "tap" the hinge, to feel the "tackiness"

It is almost counter intuitive, you think it's not going to adhere
but it does just fine

The benchmark then is to be able to "peel" the hinge off. (after 5 minutes)
Don't press too hard on the stamp when affixing.

Before I switched to using a glue stick for mounts, I found a cotton swap worked best, It did not absorb a lot of moisture so worked best than other methods I tried.

I have processed a few collections where many of the hinged stamps were badly damaged by what would seem to be something on the tongues of the previous owners. My guess is tobacco use but that is an unscientific guess. The worst offender was a multi-album BC collection that I purchased from Siegel that ended up as a balance lot because of that damage. Many of the stamps, all mint and many with a very high catalog value, had distinct and blackish stains right where the hinge was affixed.

Besides tobacco use I can see anything which is ingested potentially causing a problem. Red wine, cherries, grape juice, oils can all cause damage.

I doubt that the owner of the BC albums I reference above was aware at the time of hinging what was going to happen since the damage was too extensive to have been done in a short period of time. The stains appeared sometime later on.