Flat Stamps

No, I place the dried/slightly wet stamp face down on the page and flip over another two pages to cover the back of it. I usually fill one page with two rows of seven or eight stamps. After my dried lot is in the phone book I close it and stack a few more heavy objects on top of it; right now there's a yellow pages and a plastic bag of old magazines pushing down on the closed white pages.

Glue residue can be a bit of a problem for me as I'm working through a 2 pound box of kiloware and soak in big handfuls, but usually I can run my stamp tongs behind the stamp to pop it off of the page. This sometimes leaves a black mark from the white page listings if the glue was particularly strong. Otherwise I haven't had or noticed any obvious ink related damage.

Isn't that a type of golf club?

Just as an afterthought I purchased my first Desert Magic Drying book in 1990 and my second one in 2005. Not a bad life.

Londonbus1.....If I'd said that in my previous post, would it have been a beforethought ?

I use Imperial Stamp Drying Books. When that is full I stack two Scott Catalogues on top. Let dry overnight. Remove the stamps from the book and place in glassines to let air dry for a few hours. Then I place them by stamp shape into stock sheets. Then I start putting them into my albums. I sort them by the stamps shape so I can go through my album or catalogue looking where they are to be placed. I just find it quicker that way. I use to have pieces of wood cut to a little over 2'x 2' with holes drilled in the sides. Would put the stamps between the wood and tighten with screws and wing nuts to keep the stamps flat. Still use that if I fill up the drying books.

A clamp for a stamp !

thanks for the info on ironing, just another question- residual glue, we have old 1960's stamps I soak for 24 hours and the glue is lesser but still there, so I cant iron while damp, it will re-stick itself

any other method of removing persistent glue aside from soaking?

That's funny. I think my son-in-law uses the iron more then anyone else in the house. Even on his wedding day, my daughter was off doing something, and he was ironing his shirt. (very small informal wedding) We all live in the same house.

Wonder if he will iron my stamps for me? Hummm! Might be worth while asking. He does such a good job on his shirts.

Londonbus just reminded me. My stamp drying books are Desert Magic. They work wonderfully.

Dianne

I use a Desert Magic book also. I had a different name before that didn't last, maybe because I wasn't soaking thoroughly enough to remove all of the gum. But the stamps in the old one (I forget the name) stuck with more frequency to the page than to the desert magic one. Actually I haven't had a stamp stick in the Desert Magic yet. They do claim stamps don't stick.

Stamp Paraphernalia (in Oklahoma, USA)
http://www.stampparaphernalia.com/s...alia_006.htm

From the same guy (where I bought mine)
On ebay . ca:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Stamp-Drying-Bo...ng_W0QQitemZ310194250684QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item483904a3bc

On ebay . com:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Stamp-Drying-Bo...ng_W0QQitemZ310194250684QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item483904a3bc

Before I got the Desert Magic I used a phone book with three heavy books on top. Less books doesn't flatten some stamps well enough for me. Need to experiment. I also put sheets of white paper (the backs of junk mail letters) around the stamps for protection from the ink in the phone book. Also in case the stamps stick so I don't have to cut the phone book apart.

I have been using breakfast cereal boxes for years with great success. Works much better than paper. Some dry gum stamps stuck to the boxes though until I learned to placed them gum side against a piece of plastic shopping bag. Then piled 3 or more inches of books on top of them. Not exactly free, but the cereals are tasty, especially with bananas .

Marty

I have just had my breakfast chuckle !
Thanks Marty for a GREAT POST

Londonbus1.....

I have used a scraping tool, usually a sharp knife, quite successfully to peel off the glue from stamps with arabic gum.

Simply lay the wet stamp face down on paper, take the knife and start making long, consistent scrapes from the center of the stamp towards the edges. Washing the blade between each scraped stamp is highly recommended unless You want to make everything sticky.

Sometimes just rubbing one's thumb on a bar of soap and then rubbing that thumb on the back of the stamp under a gentle stream of warm, running water will work. For tougher gum, you might have to resort to scraping, as scb suggests.

I trust SCB's knowledge, but that scraping sure sounds scary to me.

Of course I am all thumbs

I soak 1000 stamps at a time,
I make a sandwich of ...
1. a bottom A4 sheet of white paper
2. on top a "Freezer bag"
3. place stamps gum side down to the freezer bag
4. a page of white scrap book paper on top
Slip the sandwich between pages of an old book (I use thick nightschool language books)
30-40 stamps to a page, remove in 7 days, flat as a halibut.
Rotating the pile of books maintains fresh stamps to sell/mount.
Guaranteed not to stick, even the self stick diecuts (although will grab, do not stick permanently)