Is My Album Going To Ruin My Stamps?

Hi!
I have my grandfather's original stamp album from when he was a boy. We were very close, so obviously this album has great sentimental value. I wanted to complete his album, however someone told me that the pages likely had acid and would eventually ruin my stamps.
Mostly everything in his album is hinged, but I have been mounting everything I add to the album. My plan is to eventually remove all the hinges and replace them with mounts.
Will my stamps be safe in this album if they are all mounted? Below is a picture of the album I have.

Possibly. What do the pages look like? Are they already brown, yellow or brittle? Those are the signs to look for if the paper is acidic and decaying. If the paper is crisp and fresh, you might be OK.

So even if the stamps are in mounts they will not be protected?

They will probably be OK in mounts. If you can show a picture of the inside of the album, it will probably help somewhat in determining if the album itself is a problem.

You could call Amos Publications and ask about the paper used for this edition of the album. They should be able to tell you if the paper is acid-free. (Then again, they'll be happy to sell you a new edition.)

As for removing the stamps from their hinges, I'm a big fan of leaving things alone if there is no good reason to mess with them.

Your album looks like a 1943'er
Perhaps previously they MAY have used acid free paper (basically adding an alkali such as chalk) but during war-time it may have been missed out due to economies at that time.

Now that the paper is 70-odd years old ...

... how does it look? Brittle? Yellowed?

... how does it smell? Musty?

Whether the paper is acidic or acid-fee today is easily determined with a pH-testing pen.

Whether the paper might become acidic from the breakdown of lignin is easily determined with ... wait for it ... a lignin-detecting pen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid-free_paper ... about acid-free paper

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com...opic=39366.0 ... about UV testing (some of us have UV lights to test for 'tagging')

http://stamporama.com/discboard/dis...n=20&id=8648 ... practical advice

Be sure to come back & tell us what you bought (toys first), what tests you performed, and what results you got.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Wow. Thank you all so much for the info. Everyone here is extremely friendly and supportive. I am going to take some pictures of the inside pages and post.

Looking forward to the pictures. Be sure to post larger ones as it's hard to get a good look from the size of the first pic you posted.

After 50 quality posts, you can eMail forum members directly.

After 50 quality posts, you have access to certain buy/sell/trace/etc features.

After 50 quality posts, you're fair game to get mugged.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Ikeypikey what are you talking about???

If you hang around here long, you might want to keep that phrase handy to cut and paste often. It will save you a lot of time. I kid, Ikey, I kid.

...."it's hard to get a good look from the size of the first pic you posted."

I think jrodriguex will confirm he originally posted a small generic picture of a 1943 stamp album and not the actual one in his possession so it will be good to see his grandfather's album in decent detail with larger scans/photos so as to make a decent assessment of the condition of the pages etc.

I wouldn't be trying to fill that album with mounts. It is probably a bound album, no room for the type of expansion you'd need for the mounts.