A Matter Of Hinges - Question.

And don't forget, SHO-CARDs aren't just for clowns...

I again beg to differ that all modern hinges are equal.

• Davos are substantially different with both the glassine paper and gum notably thinner than the Prinz types generally. Fasto/Lighthouse and Dennisen hinges made by Prinz are close to Davo in paper thinness but have palpably thicker shiny gum typical for Prinz-made hinges.
• Davos are always cleanly cut whereas Prinz hinges themselves are often ragged.
• Davo gum does not require heavy disturbance and thus does not require more wetting in order to be adhesive. Note that Prinz hinges don't stick if lightly wetted and the gum surface is not disturbed.
• Prinz-made hinges curl up like a ***** in 40-50% humidity; Davos do not. I think it's the thickness of the gum that causes that.
• Sizes for all are the same, and Prinz-made hinges all seem to fold at the same point. The Davo has a slightly shorter short "top tab" by about a mm.
• Prinz-made hinges can be peeled if perfectly dry and very, very lightly wetted. But there is little to no margin for error if whatever that moisture point is is passed. Davos peel quite cleanly from even cheesy old Harris pages when lightly applied and have a margin for error when somewhat overmoistened.
• That all being said, old Dennisons are still better.

Davos might be made on the same machine, but they certainly perform a lot better than the rest.

It sounds like I'm trying to sell one brand of hinges. Everyone can use what they like, but I'd rather not see the current generation of collectors having to deal with a stack of hinge remnants on every stamp. Buying from Europe today, stamps with Prinz-type hinges always have them left on or cut off at the top tab to avoid thinning, not for speed in processing. If you're not good at removing the remnants, you're going to have varying degrees of lumpy stamps.

Further, old Dennisons are not perfection. They certainly can be welded onto stamps with too much wetting. I've seen a fair number of otherwise decent collections in the past done that way. I suspect in the case of mint stamps, they went into the trash because I don't see many lots today like that.

Tks and very interesting as I've only tried one brand as a newcomer.... Definitely interested in this. I did a very quick search and had to fist a few pages before finding Davo.
https://paloalbums.com/collections/...pack-of-1000

Have to ask in today world of hijacking , is that the same as Davos you mention?

They're "Davo" hinges from the album maker in the Netherlands known as "Davo". "Davos" would either be the plural of that -- or the famous ski area in Switzerland!

I did include some Davo hinges (in a red packet) in my "hinge test" of 20+ brands of hinges. They were a big disappointment as they were just like all the others. Here they are.

https://www.davo.nl/en/webshop/acce...tamp-hinges/

In fact, I just located my hinge test pages which included nearly 30 tests of hinges, but a few are duplicate tests. I see that beneath the line labeled "Davo hinges/red packet" are a dozen pretty heavy hinge remnants followed by what I wrote about them, the single word "Awful". So at the time, it was my impression that Davo hinges were clearly not an option for me and must be sourced from the same company as all the others -- which I now know is likely to be Prinz.

I also see that I also tested Davo hinges on another album page, so testing them a second time. The note next to those Davo hinge remnants is "left more hinge remnants," meaning "more" than the other hinges I tested.

So in my test, in any case, they were no better, and perhaps worse, than other brands of hinges. Of course, this could have been the result of being wetted more than the others, though I tried to be very careful not to do that. Needless to say, all modern hinges that are currently sold failed my test pretty miserably. All left big hinge remnants behind and would surely damage a stamp unless the hinge were left on the stamp, and who wants that?

But I'll try Davo again based on hy-brasil's comments just to compare them. Maybe Davo has changed their hinges? I know Davo also sells the only non-lickable stamp mounts available (at a fairly expensive price), but mounts are not the same as hinges, of course.