Before You Throw Away Those Curled-Up Hinges

One of my favorite authors , Mark Twain related the tale of the visit by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was on an author tour and arrived in NYC. One of the first things he did was catch the train to Elmira NY, to visit Twain. He arrived unannounced and stayed 4 ,5 hours. After he left Twain exuberantly exclaimed to his wife "the most astounding man in the world, why between the two of we know everything. He knows all that is worthwhile and I know all the rest"
I know all the rest.

It is indeed what you start with I think. I use long spade because that's what I started with and others feel wrong in my hands. My son - who has large hands - uses a very short spade - which seem engulfed in those big mitts of his.

GMC89 - people have different reasons for choosing what they do, tongs-wise. You started out with the short spade-type and got used to them and thought you would be uncomfortable learning anything else. I started with the short spade-type and had to borrow a dealer's long-pointy-type at a stamp show early in my stamp collecting years. And I changed over. I like the pointy ones because I feel they give me more control and I can see more of the stamp around them. They are also pointy enough that the user can easily damage the stamp by accidentally poking a hole through it. Every tong type has its pluses AND its minuses. Collectors have to decide for themselves what criteria carry more weight in their overall +/- decision. If there was a 'right answer' to tongs, there would only be one type on the market - clearly, there is no one right answer.

I **DO** think child collectors (young stamp collectors, NOT people that collect young people...) are steered towards the short spade types because of their smaller hands and it is probably always wise to keep sharp pointy metal things out of childrens' hands. At some point in the learning/acclimation process, it is just uncomfortable to change from what has already been learned. It's like having to re-learn (or learn a slightly different way) walking after you are an adult - if there's no reason to do it, why do it???

In the end: to each his own. For whatever the reason.

Angelina Jolie would be a "child collector", I suppose. I'm not keen on encouraging children to use tweezers - let them mess around with the stamps, rather than giving them too many rules. They should be advised to use tongs when barbecuing, of course.

Thanks. I was curious. Like you stated"to each his own"
I'll also remember about the barbecues
Cheers

LOL

All's well that ends well (or with a piece of cheese).

Geoff wrote: "let them mess around with the stamps, rather than giving them too many rules...." I agree.

In summer, 2019, I made a very rare, for me, visit to Washington D.C. to testify before a congressional subcommittee in support of a Colorado wilderness bill. After the hearing, I had some time before my flight and made my first visit to the National Postal Museum. Staff has a big table with boxes of stamps for kids to play with. A couple of 3 or 4 year olds were having a wonderful time scattering the stamps around. Obviously, they got nowhere near "the good stuff," like the British Guiana penny magenta, which was on display at the time.

Steve - I enjoy stamps now, but I really loved them as a kid. Loved them to death in many cases, thumbing through them on the table, putting them in and out of a succession of albums. I still have a few, in a rather distressed state, but I doubt if I'd be collecting now if, sixty years ago, I'd had to treat them like the Crown Jewels.

I certainly do appreciate the interest my original post has created and have enjoyed reading this thread. Personally, I prefer tongs with slightly rounded, narrow tips, but in seventy years of collecting I have used all kinds at one time or another. Two things come through -- every collector has his own preferences, which is as it should be. The other thing to note --and I learned this as chairman of a big stamp club for several years -- was that there will always be collectors who think their way is the best. One should listen to them with an open mind, and always be grateful to people willing to share their knowledge.

The issue is, of course, that many of the folks here are anonymous and therefore readers have little context as to the experience level of the poster. Making a declarative or definitive comment such as 'always use brand XYZ' without context is hard to gauge. Does the poster have experience? Has the poster tested various tongs? Is the comment factual or an opinion?

Someone here may be 'know-it-alls' while others are 'knows-a-lots'; telling one form the other is often not easy. To be honest the community would be better off if we all tried to put a 'In my opinion…' in front of most of our posts. This helps remove the feeling that what follows is a 'know-it-all' type statement.

And lastly, I think we should be cautious anytime we justify our comment(s) with a 'this has always worked for me…'. While it may be apparent to some that this is an anecdotal comment it can come across to others as saying that what you do is 'right' or is 'good stewardship'. Just because something has worked for me for many years does not mean at all that it will work for others.

It is great to share our experiences, I think we should just be careful about how may be read. I try to ask myself, "how would I feel if what I posted was used by someone and they ended up losing part of their family history…am I sure what I am posting is good stewardship for everyone in all environments"?
Don