Tools Of The Trade - Must-Have Items, Magnification Power, Etc.

What are some of your "must-have" items when dealing with stamps?

Any suggestions on the strength of the magnifying glass?

Also, when identifying stamps, it seems that sometimes the paper type and grill are an important distinguishing feature. Are these features something that can be identified at home by a newbie or is it a job for an expert?

I've read about this online but I'm curious to hear about everyone's preferences.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

One website is highly recommended: www.stampsmarter.com . Best way to learn is to sit down and enjoy what this site has to offer
And welcome to the forum

Peter

Welcome.

My must haves are a set of Scott catalogs, tongs, magnifier, perf gauge, and storage boxes for sorting. I'm sure as I start working on identifying stamps I'll add some additional tools.

Dale

Any glass under 10x is essentially useless. A 10x, a 15x, and a 20x should be in every collectors toolkit.

Watermark fluid

UV light

An intense light source for close-up viewing

Hand-rolling tobacco (Pueblo for preference) and papers (OCB gum Arabic).

Tongs, 10x loupe/magnifier, and specialized catalogs

A nearby internet interface, such as a tablet or laptop, with a list of accumulated bookmarks of philatelic sites for reference during collecting activities. Some have already been mentioned here; I also like stampworld.com as it allows searching by topic or denomination or issue date within a country. This helps me to complete many identifications the moment, rather than setting a stamp aside to get back to later (or not).

Besides the above I use UV lamps, my laptop (to look up info), and stockbooks and 102 cards for storing stamps.

EDIT to add: How about cans of Pure Citrus and unscented talc for removing self-adhesives from paper?

I've found a USB Microscope very useful. Can be had for under $50 online. I use a CARSON.

and a perforation gauge.

Polkaonthebanjo, I use two magnifiers, depending. First is a five to six inch 3x magnifier with a 5x little inset, and a light switch in the handle, good for quick reference of many varieties. Check Amazon for $10. For detail, I use a Peake Optical 10x with a light. The 10x also has an extra measuring feature that under magnification allows 1/10th of 1 mm measuring, which is handy. I think 10x is about as much as one will need. Peake Optical has a website.
Also, get yourself well illuminated on your work surface. Heretofore, I had used Ott light daylight flourescent (sp?) bulbs and fixtures. Have recently changed to a fixture that has no ballast in it (less to go wrong), CFL bulbs, etc. Some folks on here may use LED. Main thing is to properly illuminate what ever you are working on, saves eye strain.

Thanks everyone!

I'm curious about using the USB microscope. Is it for recognizing paper types?