Peroxide Cleaning Of Small Queens

Requesting your thoughts on the peroxide cleaning of 'oxidized' SQs. Would you consider this a damaged stamp? Chris

I do not consider it a peroxide "cleaning" but rather more a restoration or treatment. But no one could argue that it is not a chemically altered stamp once treated. And we know that peroxide can lighten a stamp (i.e. using too strong of peroxide) and there is no data on any possible cumulative effects with repeated peroxide treatments. And no one documents a 'peroxide history' with each stamp so we never know if this is the first time a stamp has been treated or the 10th time it has been treated.

It has also been my anecdotal observation that once sulphurization has occurred on a stamp it seems to return faster than a stamp which has never seen any sulphurization.

With the old car hobby, it has become desirable to not repaint cars but rather retain and relish the car's patina. I wish that this would happen with our hobby too.
Don

Totally agree with Don...I know there are lot of newbies and experts out there that think it is ok to peroxide stamps.

Look at it this way..I buy an antique dresser...With patina...Now you strip it down and re stain it...The price drops big time.

If I had 2 stamps in front of me to buy..One original and one peroxided..
Guess which one I would buy...Just my opinion.

Robert

I have thousands of queens and I actually personally love the shade variation so I leave mine and admire how chemical changes have given me a new colour ;)

Like stamps101 says...shading.
Here is an example of Large Queen shadings.
Robert

Many of those are 'hues', not 'shades'. 'Shade' means the same color but lighter or darker (i.e blue and a darker blue). 'Hue' means a different color (i.e. blue and purple brown).
Don

The sulphuretting is a surface reaction and peroxide isn't always necessary, dry removal is possible.

Best to know what you're doing before using peroxide, but it can vastly improve appearance in the eye of the beholder. It's a personal choice.

Thanks for making that point about the use of the word hue, Don. It's a common mistake.
But let me clarify even further. Shading refers to the darkening of a hue (colour) usually with the addition black
Lightening a colour, usually adding white, is referred to as tinting. If you add gray to a colour to alter it, that is called toning.

Yep, four years of art school! Hardly wasted. :}

wert that is a particularly pleasant way to display the shades and hues. I am very taken with it!