Recycled Glassine Interleaving

Because of the expense in using new glassine interleaving in my Minkus Supreme Global albums I have thought about recycling old interleaving, now somewhat yellowed and brittle by age, from older collections I have obtained over the years.

Question, is there any danger to stamps by using the older interleaving? I started with interleaving back in the early 80's and it seems okay. The recycled stuff could be as old as the 60's.

To remove the often dog eared edges of the older interleaving I used an X-Acto razor paper trimmer. Obviously it reduces the size a bit but generally makes them an inexpensive supplement for newer stock.

Hello Raimond, welcome!

I don't have albums at this time but did before with inter-leaving . All I see now in that regard are older glassines. I am not sure what affects the glassine waxy substance to make it darker and aged appearing but it does look 'dirty' to me and I always hesitate to put nice new stamps in the older glassines. But it is probably OK, and I do use the older glassines, I don't throw them out.

It might be that the sunlight has cracked the waxy substance finely enough to make it seem glazed or crazed a bit and thus refracts the light and makes it darker appearing.

I would think it OK as long as the pages or glassines are not actually falling apart when you touch them or little pieces flaking off or something.

G'day Raimond,

I can offer two commentaries, one of which suggests you
avoid it like the plague. Hope this is of some help.

Glassine is manufactured by a process called calendering; after pulping and drying,
the sheets are pressed through rollers such that the paper fibers flatten out facing in the
same direction. In order to maximize the smoothness and thinness of the paper,
glassine must go through this process several times, and so is referred to as
supercalendered.

Usage
Glassine has a number of practical uses. It is frequently employed as an interleaving
paper in bookbinding, especially for illustrations; the paper can be manufactured with
a neutral pH, and can prevent damage from spilling, exposure, or rubbing. Glassine
tape has also been used in book repair. In chemistry, glassine is used as an
inexpensive weighing paper. It is also used in foodservice as a barrier between strips
of products (e.g., meat, baked goods); glassine is resistant to grease and facilitates
separation of individual foodstuffs.
Philatelists use glassine envelopes to store stamps, and stamp hinges are sometimes
made of glassine.
Amateur insect collectors sometimes use glassine envelopes to store specimens
temporarily in the field before they are mounted in a collection. Entomologists
collecting for research purposes may likewise use glassine envelopes to store whole
specimens in the field. However, if the research involves DNA or other tissue analysis
the relevant parts of the body (e.g. abdomen or testes) will typically be placed
immediately into a preservative such as ethanol. When this is done for Lepidoptera
(moths and butterflies) the wings will often be separated and stored indefinitely in
glassine envelopes in case the wing patterning or venation is required later to confirm
the identity of a specimen.

Glassine envelopes have also been employed for carrying drugs such as cocaine and
heroin.
In the mid-20th century, potato chips were sometimes packaged in glassine bags.
Glassine is sometimes used in the packaging of firecrackers

Thanks for the respones and thesis! Now that I think about it, some lots I have bought had mint stamps in approval glassines that are very, very old and the stamps did not appear to have suffered from the yellowing of the glassine. Of course, it does not look as good as the fresh interleaving but then again one must try to be "green" and recycle.

leave the green stuff to other aspects of your life. if you play around with old glassline you will be sorry. instead get intercept shield envelopes and store the stamps in them

spock, the only envelopes that Intercept Shield makes for paper products are 9 inch by 14 inch envelopes, more for comic books and photographs.

All their other products are for coins. Nice products though. Wish they did make stuff for stamps.

http://www.interceptshield.com/envelopes.html
They do not sell the products themselves, only through dealers and distributors.

What products of theirs do you use for stamps?

I have not seen any long term storage issues with glassine but I do find the fact the fact the material is not archival (i.e. acid-free)so there is at least a potential for harm. My main issue with old glassine is the discoloration and the fact that it becomes quite brittle over time.

well we just need to get archival envelopes and put it in the is envelopes those are the best as far as I know so are ziploc bags in IS envelopes

Oh, Canada's ugly stamp. Oh, oh, I feel nauseous. Poor Marconi.

edit: Sorry, posted in wrong thread. Supposed to be in the green grorge thread. When I have two or more tabs open on Stamp Community in Firefox 3.6.3 I post and it seems to end up in another tab's thread somehow instead of the one where I thought I put it. Sigh. I will learn. Only one tab open at a time perhaps. I will try that. That sounds good for an excuse anyway.

lol

can we see it?