Ethiopian Stamps Stuck Together

Had these stamps in a packet for a while and they have been largely ignored. Realised that many have their original gum intact but they are stuck together. Soaking the stamps means that the gum will be gone. I don't suppose I have much of a choice.

They look just as nice without gum as with gum!

Just a thought: If you apply moisture to the face of the stamps, will it reach the gum?
If not, and since you seem to have duplicates, you can sacrifice some of them by adding wet cotton to one on top of the other, lose the gum on the one on top, but save the one under it.

some have suggested putting them in the freezer. Haven't tried it it.

I bought a stockbook of Ethiopia stamps a couple of years ago, and many were stuck together like this. Some I released by steaming over a kettle, some I released by putting in a "sweat box" (a container with a rack in the bottom and boiling water just below the level of the rack) but the freezer trick didn't work. Be very careful and very patient when separating the stamps. I threw away about 50% of the stamps, and destroyed the stockbook in the process.

They will look just fine in the album without gum.

pennieblackie,
It happens to the best of us...
Many of them look like the have reasonable gaps. One thing you can try, is take a mound of stamps, and just bend them slightly, like 2 - 5 degrees, and see if they will release from the stamps below them. Often times they will separate this way, you might have a slight gum disturbance, or a slight loss of color on the stamp below (and stuck into the gum after), but it would allow salvaging most of them. The ones that don't come off this way, seal in a zipper bag with all the air pressed out. Put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Take them out of the bag, and try the same method again.
Repeat as you "whittle" away the stack.
You may have a few (back-to-back gum) that just won't release. Then you can soak (sacrifice) just the few that way. But I think you should be able to free at least 1/3rd of what you have there with no/minimal damage just by flexing them a bit.
Don't force them though, apply a little resistance, but not enough to tear them. If you get to that point, you have to soak at least if you want to display them.
Also pick a dry day if possible, not a day with high humidity.
(Ah, just notice you're in Singapore, so forget what I said about humidity... just crank the AC up in your place for an hour or so before to get as much ambient moisture out of the air as you can, otherwise it can turn sticky quickly when you take the frozen stamp out when it hits the humid air, forms moisture against the gum...) I lived in Singapore 3 times, the longest for 4 years from 2010 to 2014. So I get it... :)

You can also try the opposite of freezing. Steam from a boiling teakettle can separate stamps from each other if they are not too badly stuck together. I'd use wooden tongs or chopsticks to hold a small group in the steam for maybe 10-20 seconds. With the humidity there, you may need to press the separated stamps immediately to prevent major curling.

Try both. Soaking is your last resort.

Thanks for your advices. The low quality printing ink of these stamps come off easily with the slightest pulling. It happened to a couple of them when I tried it last time. It would be perfect if I can retain the gum and get them separated so freezing or steaming should do the trick. I haven't tried either method so will need to grasp the technique first. With busy work schedule, got to really find a clear day to do this.

Good luck pennyblackie, let us know how it turns out.

They look like reprints too me.