When The Choice Of Tongs (Tweezers) Matters!

I do not recommend the very pointy ones,

Ha! Ha! Love the picture!

And I love the long pointy ones, they are my favourite by far! A second nature for sure!

I do have 7 or 8 pairs of tongs, all different lengths and different kinds of endings, some I got as I bought random accumulations.

And I can tell you that when I misplace the 15cm long pointy ones, it's shear panic in the house!!

Me too!

Most professionals I know use them, when used correctly, they offer deflty manipulation of stamps, in a huge variety of situations,
Using Hagnars, picking stamps off the scanner platen, picking up
multiples without damage to perforations.

I love them.

I learnt to use them after visiting the home of the secratary of the West Aussie Philatelic society, and buying pages from him.

I got home, and there was a desperate plea on the message machine,
my tongs! do you have them?

I was mortified, thinking he may have thought I stole them.

I thought, I gotta try these things that was so important to him.
Have not looked back.

I did lose mine a couple of times, hidden between pages,
like you I panic !

They are 15 years old now, my best friends.

'Oh! and did I mention, straightening out curled stamp hinges like magic!

Quote
"Dealers prefer the long pointies, they are the most efficient of all tweezers (Tongs)"
Paraphrasing.

I use them myself, and have for decades.

Ah! Just did my first edit!

It's a small detail but we are a group of detail-oriented folks!

Of course, I meant 15cm (6" for the neighbours south of the border!)

I wouldn't want to inspire someone to look for 15" long tongs…

902's are the preferred choice in my world.

15 inch? My largest are only 12"

(OK, they are actually chef's kitchen tongs and not recommended for stamps because they are serrated at the end for better gripping)

Dear SPQR,

In case you missed it:




I was born in the 70's, in Canada, in the midst of a social experiment where the country converted from imperial to metric. To this day, along with my peers, I'm still very confused!

I use them too, but I suspect that a lot of collectors would think of them as pointy.

we are a group of scan-oriented folks!
So, whether it's pointy or curved or 902 or 911, for the sake of those that use eyebrow tweezers, please show a scan.

I just bought my first tongs the other day, Showgard #909 spade tips. I'm just a beginner, so I thought tongs were tongs. I like them a lot because they have a larger surface area to grab the stamp with, rather than just a point, and makes inserting them into my snug vario pages easier. But I've never used anything else, lol, so I have nothing to compare them to.

Upper - paddles, daily use.
None of the stamps handled by it have eyebrows or eyelashes.
Lower - pointy, seldom used.
Also good to remove wood or stamp splinters.

One of the mysteries of life: I have examined hundreds of large lots and collections, and almost NEVER found any tools with them. One would expect them to be thrown into the box with everything else, but it does not seem to happen. Divorce papers I have found, but tools?????

<scarcasm font>
Divorce papers are an essential component of 50% of all stamp collections. It is the only time when the valuation of the collection approaches 200% of the cost of the items it contains.

The real difficulty is finding albums that can handle the 11"x14" documents.
</scarcasm font>