How To Remove Residual Gum And Straighten Out Stamps

Hi,
I removed some stamps from news paper wrappers. Some
have color transfer of wrapper on stamps, Many have residual gum
almost all stamps after drying are creased. Should I re soak and remove creases ?. how one would approach his.



your input will be highly appreciated.

Cheers
tikithindi

why did you soak them? You lost all of the historical value this way. Having said that, your question was asked just a few days ago, and if you search this forum you will get all sorts of answers.
"Search" button is on every page
in the upper right corner a bit lower and to the left of where you log in


Peter.

"All of the historical value"? These are a few stamps, not the Dead Sea scrolls.

Could be both:

Have you been emptying my recycling bag?

hi,
@Peter,GeoffHa,Petert4522 you mean I should not have soaked and remove from the wrapper ?
Wrapper were pretty torn they were given by friends, whom I requested they save for me. Did not keep wrappers in tact.
any way should I keep attached wrapper or piece of paper ?
Thanks very much for reply. will search too so I can read
appreciate very much.

Thanks
tikithindi

tikithindi - I certainly wasn't saying that you shouldn't have soaked them. It's what I'd have done myself.

I use water as hot as my hand can stand and leave stamp in for as little time as possible. I place the washed stamps on paper towel and when the paper towel sheet is full (or I am finished), I place another sheet on top and gently press down to remove most of the moisture.

I then take a third sheet and place the stamps on that. Drying only takes 3-6 hours but I leave them for a few days before sorting into an album. I find storage in the album will flatten a curled stamps, creases are normally permanent.

It is worthwhile using damaged or poor examples to test if the ink will run. Some inks do not tolerate immersion in water and the stamp will be significantly devalued, if not rendered worthless. Great Britain QV 'Jubilee' issue is a good example.

Go slowly, your knowledge and confidence will grow.

Creases are different from bends. Both can usually be straightened out, but creases are damage to the paper fibers that can generally be seen as lines on the print image. With gravure printing especially, bends can also damage/break print details.

hee hee..I can't help but chuckle at the conversation. I have no helpful insights other than I have resoaked and re-pressed stamps when they dried badly the first try and it was much better the second time. Best of luck!