Reinforcing Album Page Holes

Art - I never thought to use the construction paper - you don't have any issues with that tearing also, once the hole is punched? Thanks.

After considerable use. But a few minutes repabums as wir and I'm ready to go again. I spend a lot of time working the book during sorting down a large no. of stamps, so it gets a lot of activity. Could work for albums as well, I suppose, providing the color and material is right. Might try manila folders, which would, I think, blend well.

Art

Posted Today 0 Min ago
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(Edited )After considerable use. But a few minutes repair and I'm ready to go again. I spend a lot of time working the book during sorting down a large no. of stamps, so it gets a lot of activity. Could work for albums as well, I suppose, providing the color and material is right. Might try manila folders, which would, I think, blend well.

Art

Hi -
I bought a set of Minkus Supreme Global album pages from Amos. They are punched with holes that are about 0.303" diameter. All the commercial hole reinforcement rings I can find have holes 0.25" diameter. When I use them there is a annulus of sticky material that remains exposed. Amos / Minkus does not make or sell hole reinforcements to fit the hole size in the new Supreme Global pages. I bought a 3/8" diameter paper punch (which makes still a bigger hole) but it gets gummed up on each hole. I've tried to punch the standard-sized (0.25" dia) reinforcements both as they come (before application) and also tried to punch them after application to the page. Gets gummed up immediately in either case.
Modern hole reinforcements are made from polyester sheet and use an acrylic adhesive. I don't believe either will cause a degradation of nearby stamps but if anyone has an opinion on that aspect please let me know.
Thanks - Jim (my first post)

Although over time if you use enough of them they will cause a bulking up of the page ends, have you tried placing a reinforcement ring on both sides of the sheet? This should remove most of the excess stickiness problem.

You could try a small amount of talcum powder on the exposed sticky area. The talc will stick to the adhesive and nothing else will adhere to it after that. A small amount on a fingertip would probably be enough to do the trick.

Dear docgfd - I should have mentioned the fact that I have previously put reinforcements on both sides of glassine interleaves(same oversized-hole problem) but the work of lining them up to be very concentric as well as the extra thickness they caused prompted me to look for another solution. But thanks for the suggestion.
Dear ArtfullHinger - The talc idea is one I hadn't thought of and one which I will try. Have you used this trick yourself? I do have a little concern that a few years down the road enough of the talc will have been jostled free for the problem to recur but this is the best idea I've thought of or heard. If you have had good results with this method yourself please let me know . . . A good idea in any event :-)
Regards to both of you - Jim

I agree with larsdog. The white rings are convenient and hide nicely on the back of the page.

I haven't tried the talc on reinforcement rings, but I use it sometimes on the back of used self adhesive stamps that might have some adhesive left after removing them from their envelopes. It's fairly common practice among collectors of those issues. Anything is possible over the long term, of course, but I haven't heard of any reports of damaged or discolored stamps or album pages as a result of using it.

One of my albums is from Mystic and they have succeeded in supplying me with a number of junk pages which I don't use. You know, replaced pages when I buy the annual suppliment, pictures of the president holding his one-of-a-kind upside down Jenny plate block, and things like that. I cut a half to three quarter inch strip off one of them with the holes already in it, apply a little stick glue, and it makes a great reinforcement for any page that shows signs of giving out.

Does it make the pages get too thick? Not much more than using mounts does. Works great, it's cheap, and it's almost invisible. In a pinch, I can cut a second strip off the same page, and punch my own holes in it, and if I'm careful, still not have border or print showing on the patch.

leoh: I'm not sure what you mean by "...checked with Mystic...", but they have advertised this product for a couple of years and it is still listed in the latest brochure (MCW145) that I received today, 18 September 2014. The catalog number is LS221 and the item is priced at $5.99 per pack of 48 strips.

Regards,

I've had similar problems with my album. I decided to buy archival-safe sheet protectors. It was relatively inexpensive, and adds an extra layer of protection to both the stamps and the pages. The only drawback is it takes up a lot more space. I had to go from 2 binders to 3 in order to fit my album. I think the benefits outweigh the extra expense though. I can finally turn my pages without the fear of ripping every single page!

Hi 68W- Do these sheet protectors fully enclose the page and then have holes for the binder rings or posts? What is your experience with the inconvenience of having to remove the protectors from the page to put in a new stamp?
I've just started the job of putting hole reinforcements on my new Minkus Supreme Global pages (only through Argentina at present) and putting talcum powder on the small exposed sticky annulus (see above.) It does make one side of the page effectively twice a thick as the other. I'm going to do about 1.5" worth of pages, put them in a Lighthouse Grande binder with page lifters and see how that works.
Thanks for the suggestions -

They are standard sheet protectors. The sheet protector has its own holes, so the page sits out farther from the binding. The album page slides in from the top, so all I have to do is slide the page out and the sheet protector stays where it is. It's kind of a pain because you have to slide out the page every time you mount a new stamp, but like I said, I like the extra protection. Make sure you do your homework though. Only buy archival safe, acid free ones.

I did think there was an adhesive strip that you purchase, peel and stick to the edge of pages. But I think I saw a page of paper with the strip factory applied.

I only apply the old white Dennison gummed reinforcement when there is a hole tear. They have torn again, through the reinforcement, mainly in the back of the album. So now I put them on both sides in the event of a tear. Never had a problem with that.

Now that I have divided my collection into 5 volumes, I don't have hole tear problems anymore. Maybe prevention is the best cure?



-IBFS