Removing Stamp Hinges

In my experience, modern stamps with the glue are not worth the effort. No matter how carefully you try to rub the glue off, the combination of that and cheap paper has led way too many attempts to result in a tear.

When I have a stubborn hinge which doesn't peel off with zero resistance (like the "good old" Dennison and Fold-O hinges) ... and I learned the hard way by creating my fair share of thins because I was impatient ...

Soaking works, and very well! It is just that often when I'm clearing an old album I'll want to move a stamp directly to my album without having to wait the couple of days for the stamp to be dry enough to mount after soaking.

So, I use a foam paint brush, like pictured below, dab some water onto and around the edges of the stubborn hinge, and the hinge will loosen enough to easily peel off without damage to the back of the stamp. The stamp is not soaking wet and actually just a little damp, I'll leave it face down on the table for ... IDK, never really timed it but 5-10 minutes max maybe ... and it is dry enough to mount.

I would imagine that this process would also work well to peeling a stamp off an album page without leaving hinge remnants, but I've never tried it for that.