Help With Soaking And Cleaning Stamps

Hi, I have some old stamps in my collection that have bits of old envelope, stamp hinges and home made gummed paper hinges! still attached.
I would like to clean some of them up a little and get some of this debris off but have not yet ventured into the soaking dept and am a little nervous about it.
I have seen some old stamps that have been soaked and the colour has leached , does this occur with particular countries or is there anyway of telling if it will happen.
Welcome any help.
Thank you

It's rare that colours will leach or that any harm will be done to the stamps. That said, if you have any on bright paper backgrounds, eg a piece of bright red envelope, you may be best soaking it separately from the others, just in case the red runs.

Are any of the stamps particularly old or rare? If not, I say just go for it. There's little that can go wrong. Pop them in a dish of some sort, covered with warm water. The hinges will probably float off inside a minute. Stamps on bits of envelopes will take longer, but 10 minutes or so should do it, and they will look cleaner and brighter. (Check out how filthy the water is after they've been soaked!)

Some older stamps are printed with ink that will dissolve in water. It is always better to soak as short as possible, especially with older stamps. And use cold water as much as possible. For more information on the soaking of stamps please use the search function on this forum.

Peter

Thank you both and thank you Peter for pointing the way to forums, I really should have checked this out first.

Ferret

Interesting - though I soak only more recent stuff I use warm water and a good dose of hand soap rubbing under the tap. Soak for an hour or so, then drain, soak in fresh tepid water another 1/2 hour. Press and dry. Perfect.

CanadaStamp, you are probably doing OK. I am from the old bunch that remember the ink that was used on some stamps before WWII that would completely dissolve in water. Some issues of the Dutch Indies come to mind.
As long as you stick to modern issues there is probably very little chance of ruining a stamp your way!

Peter