Removing Those Pesky Self Adhesives From Envelopes

Last night, I was on a mission to find a bottle of Pure Citrus. I did not like just trimming the paper close on the used recent issues and hinging them. I finally found one bottle of Citrus Magic at the local Menards store, and ran home to try it. It truly was magic! The stamps came right off about 10 seconds with a light spray on the back. A bit of talc on the back, a razor blade to scrape off the remaining adhesive, and I was in business mounting a stack of 2015 and 2016 stamps. I fear stamps cut from posts cards or packages won't work as well. Too thick for the spray to soak through. Question: where are you all finding the magic spray? I hunted a lot of stores until I found what I did. I thought it would be easy to find, but not so much. Hoping this first can lasts me a while while I find more.

If you think you will need alot, there is always Amazon.

In my neck of the woods Home Depot stocks it.


Peter

I still prefer Ronsonol, as I know it will not do long term damage to the stamp. I worry that the citrus stuff will degrade the paper over time.

I have also found that if I put 5-10 stamps in a zip-lock bag, soak them down, and wait 10 minutes, they come off much easier. It cuts down on the fumes, and allows the solvent to soak in. This is especially useful on coated surfaces. Further, the gum scrapes off much more easily.

Dave, I have a suggestion that will make removing stamps from cards much, much easier. Card material is layered paper. Using a craft knife (xacto) or scalpel you can split and peel the card into a thinner piece of paper stock. Thinning the card material allows the solvent to do its work. Sometimes a mounted magnifier is helpful in doing this procedure.

Another suggestion: lighter fluid works better with thicker paper stock. I know a lot of people "don't want to hear this" but it is true.

I never used Ronsonol to remove stamps. I'll try it. How about watermark fluid? Anybody tried that?

Don

My local Wal-Mart stocks the "Pure Citrus" in the air freshener department.

Dave, a gre4at many collectors now have changed their mind about this and no longer try to remove the stamps but leave whatever backing on them. That has, at least for the forseeable future also the advantage that we can see if the citrus is safe to use in the long run.


Peter

Self-adhesive materials stabilize over time by liquifying, absorbing into their surrounding material (paper), and then crystallizing...at which point the paper (stamps) cannot be salvaged.

Leaving the self-adhesive stamps on paper is not a wise choice, whoever decides to do it.

The Peace on Earth do the same thing on the original release liner.

You've said that before, Bob. I hate it when you say it, but I know its true.

Jack Kelley

angore, the effect is probably worse on the "mint" stamps on their liners, because that backing (liner) paper is non-absorbent. The adhesive has only one direction to go.

Well, I did find a bottle of Pure Citrus at my nearby Wal-Mart. So I have two bottles of magic stamp juice to try for a while. I'll see how this goes and decide if I want to continue or go back to leaving the stamps on paper, trimming close, and hinging. So far, my only complaint is that it gets a bit messy when I try to scrape the adhesive from the back. I've put a sheet of cardboard down to work on, but I quickly used it up and had scraped-off glue and spray residue all over it. I then had no place to safely place the stamps face down to scrape off the adhesive and had to change out the cardboard a few times. Its a learning process. The messiness of my workspace my make me decide to stop using the spray.

I've encountered only one problem with Pure Citrus. It's such a great air freshener that by the time I need to use it for philatelic purposes the canister is empty.

Try using a pane of glass. When it's messy, spray it.

littleriverphil...That is an absolutely brilliant idea. Thanks.