Removal & Preservation Of Self Adhesive Postage Stamps

Is that you wert?

Sorry..Will do it right next time.

No worries. The comments on Youtube basically are unmoderated and can nasty. That's why we like them embedded here.

I've read about 'unboxing' videos, but never actually watched one.

This was close enough ;)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/m...-videos.html

I'm not going to watch all eleven minutes again, listening closely, so this may be redundant, but ...

USE ALL SOLVENTS IN A WELL-VENTILATED AREA.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Well...not all solvents...Dawn liquid detergent is a solvent, and you certainty dont have to ventilate...

What are solvents? Solvents are liquids or gases that can dissolve or extract other substances. They are used to dissolve grease, oil, and paint; to thin or mix ...

It is absolutely true that water, and many non-volatile oils, are solvents that do not, in typical applications, require ventilation.

I will choose to disagree about Dawn et al, as all surfactants do not belong on the surfaces of your mucosa.

Use heptane, and any of the usual watermark-detecting fluids, in a well-ventilated area.

And, oh, yeah, do not light the smoking lamp until you're done & gone.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

would toluene work Ikey? I still have a big container of it from AVCO (now Textron Lycoming) in Williamsport, Pa. and it's doing nothing but taking up space. Of course I can't get rid of ii any ordinary fashion obviously because of the FEDS or the EPA or maybe the bomb squad might show up or just something terrible..That's my kind of luck...lol

ILS, my memory may be hazy, but from what I remember from my college days, toluene is a pretty nasty substance. Please be very careful with using it.

It is guys like you, with stories like these, that give firefighters nightmares ;)

[tangential_anecdote]

One year, I managed the chem lab at a small women's liberal arts college. Best job, ever. Among my initiatives were taking boxes of generations of broken laboratory glassware to the glassblowers for repair - my oldest was 2-1/2, and remembers that little field trip - and dealing with the many aged bottles of chemicals - most of which, thankfully, still had their labels.

But knowing what they were was only the beginning. After washing down the sink, with copious amounts of water, the stuff (eg a coupla dozen bottles) that could (legally) be dissolved or diluted with water and contributed to the public sewer, we were left with four bottles that were left in the category of 'you will not be dropping this because you will not be moving this lest it suddenly re-number your fingers'.

One of the Advanced Strategies we discussed was taking the bottles outside, late one afternoon, and throwing rocks at them, and letting them explode. (This from a tenured professor). The thought of explaining to the school administration why we needed to post 'do not walk barefoot' signs on the grass outside the chem lab introduced a certain hesitancy.

And hesitancy was the problem. There was no 'amnesty' office to which we could ask questions; instead, even asking anyone for the price of proper removal could, by itself, trigger an expensive inquiry from the authorities.

In the end, we opted for the locked cabinet under the sink, if memory serves.

[/tangential_anecdote]

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Do you suppose that the stuff is still locked under the sink?

Toluene is pretty tough stuff; it'll suck the moisture out of your skin in an instant. Used to work on a paint crew where we used it on occasion and I learned that the hard way.

I have successfully used (on GB stamps) the petrol-style lighter fuel which comes in the square cans. It's only £1 a bottle in the £1 shops. Same method - saturate the backing paper and the stamp becomes peelable. The fuel evaporates away, but the gum stays on the stamp (which therefore needs sticking down again).

i use thinner, the solvent used to dilute paints. It worked well, but the room should be ventilated. Use a ink dropper, fill thinner and just drop it on the back of the stamped paper. Be careful not to drop the thinner on the stamp, as it would 100% fade the stamp colours. Hence, just drop the thinner or any solvent on the paper back, let it get wet, once wet, you would be able to view the stamp on the other side due to solvent spreading, then peel of the stamp. I repeat, strictly peel the adhesive stamp from the paper, not the paper from the stamp. All this in a matter of 20-30 seconds, If you do not peel of the stamp from the paper in the next 10-15 seconds, then your solvent would get evaporated, your stamp could not be peeled off. After peeling the stamp, you should neutralize the excessive gum on the back of the stamp with some talcum powder. After flattening your off paper self adhesive stamps, you could brush away the excess talcum powder from the back of the stamp.

Caution: The talcum powder on the back of the stamp is the neutralizer to the excessive gum, if you drop your off paper stamps in water, the talcum powder would get dissolved in water, the gum would again crop up on the back of the stamp. The stamp will become sticky again.

This is the method, I use with self adhesive stamps. There could be many other methods to do the same work. This worked for me. In the lighter fuel method, the stamp has to be dipped in to the fuel/liquid, it might spread some colors or the stamps could get damaged in some way. I cannot get hold of the citrus smelling room spray in my country. Hence I used the thinner method. The WD 40 method is also good, but it is spray bottle, the manufacturer sells very little solvent in a big metal spray bottle or pen. Hence I use a bottle full of thinner solvent, which is about 30 Indian rupees, which could make some on paper stamps to off paper ones.

Always use a ink dropper or some kind of small dropper, do not apply excess solvent to the back of the stamp paper.

I always agree to disagree, you do not need a 11 minute video to learn this. Try to get a solvent, a ink dropper/filler, then you need your self adhesive on paper. You also need some talcum powder (talcum powder is a very inert material). And do not forget, you need some 30-40 seconds of your valuable time to do the job. You also need some patience. Try a little bit, be confident, my method, would definitively work on all types of self adhesive stamps.

Caution: It would certainly not work on Self adhesive stamps on paper, which have been already soaked in water, then dried. It might work to some extent, but not 100%. Hence use a unsoaked self adhesive stamp.

After you have succeeded in saving your first self adhesive stamp from the backing paper. Try to spread the message across to all stamp collectors in your local philatelic club or society that "You Can remove Self adhesive stamps on paper to safety."

Collectors in stamp community.org could agree with me or they could also disagree. I always agree to disagree. I am not a innovator, certainly not a discoverer. But a normal god loving, law abiding citizen, who is also a beginner stamp collector helping others collect and preserve stamps.

warm wishes.

other collectors, who have other methods, please give details, as we can all benefit from our findings.

warm wishes.

Latest I've heard is frebrez sprayed on will remove the stamp haven't tried it but love the smell.