Soaking and cleaning stamps

Thank you for the reply and i must confess that i forgot to do a search for earlier threads or posts.

I agree that 12% seems pretty strong to use as you even dilute 6% H2O2 for cleaning your stamps.

Hydrogen peroxide (in Italy we call it something like "oxigenated water") is a product that can have many uses at home, not just for washing stamps.
I've used it for mould-fighting, for bleaching wood, and for cleaning stamps.
But i've always used it in higher concentration than what you say.
In Italy the concentration is commonly indicated in volumes of oxygen released. Concentrated hydrogen peroxide is found at 130 volumes, which correspond to a concentration of 35%.
Now these products are no longer sold to private persons, but only to firms operating in the chemical sector. I was able to get a few liters by borrowing it from friends who used it for work, but now i've run out of supplies and it's several years i don't use it. But in other countries that's not the case. For example, in Spain i saw shops selling "household" chemicals, i.e. intended to be used at home, where you can easily find H2O2 together with a lot of other products...
Hydrogen peroxide is an unstable product, so it naturally tends to decompose releasing oxygen. So it is stabilized with the addition of sulfuric acid. So to be used, a few drops of an alkaline substance (i use ammonia) must first be added to neutralize the acid.
It must be handled with care, using at least nitrile gloves (resistant to chemical agents) and protecting your eyes, but once you learn it you handle it without problems.
To fight mold i use it concentrated. I apply it on the wall with a brush (obviously the brush must also be appropriate, otherwise all the bristles will get lost in a short time), leave it for an hour, and then nothing more, because by releasing oxygen it turns into water.
For stamps i use a lower concentration, 40 volume (12%). More simply i put one part of hydrogen peroxide and two parts of normal water. Then i put the stamp to clean and after i rinse it in normal water.
The results are usually good. I don't have stamps to show because i don't have the "before" as a term of comparison.
However, these are procedures that i don't use always, but only when the stamp requires it, which happened to me 5-6 times...
It has a lower whitening effect than sodium hypochlorite, but i find it less "dangerous" because, as i said, once the oxygen is released, it becomes water and does not leave the paper acid like hypochlorite does.

Easier to do than to explain. I suggest everyone to try it, but ok, safety first. Nitrile gloves and glasses.

About fifty at once. The water is usually getting muddy after fifty. And I have arthritis in my right hand and have to rest once in a while anyway, so I take a break then.

I personally don't pay much attention to fluorescence.

I save them for my wife in case she ever wants to make a collage. I'm like you, I don't like to throw them away if they look good and have flaws that would only bother stamp collectors. I used to save stamps with footprints on them or ones that had been folded up like a paper airplane because I'm an old softie, but I'm getting cold-hearted and ruthless as time goes on.

I think it's a law made by one of the ill-tempered Norse gods. I think those guys should be evicted from wherever they are and we can all move on  .

Those are nice stamps; I have some of them and I get Polish mixtures now and then to catch up with newer issues. Many of them have excellent designs. In recent years, they are getting kind of repetitive, though. What happened to XIV - XVIII?

I'd keep it here if it were up to me. But that's just me.

Hello eggdog
I made a mistake... XIX->XIV...

having just haunted the pharmacists in Surrey, U.K., can report that none that I tried had a 3% peroxide solution - I was offered 6% but declined since the advice here was to use 3% - it's not a problem since I can buy 3% online anyway, but I was trying to avoid a carbon footprint in the form a vehicle bringing to my home.
However, back to the subject of dirty (sulphured ?) stamps. I've attach couple of pix showing 1) ........... the blue-green 1/2d. (NATAL POSTAGE) - likely SG 96 or 97 (wmk. needs checking), from the early 1880s - I think the cancellation is likely to be Durban - the dirty stamp is shown alongside a clean example ....
and 2) ............. a 4 annas - possibly SG 46 EAST INDIA issue from the 1856/64 series of defs. - regret I don't have a clean example for comparison.
But certainly the dirty stamps really are dirty.
I notice some folk here do use 6% peroxide, and I think they water it down - is this a risk worth taking do people think? thanks.

thanks stainlessb - sure, will let you know how I get on. Very wet here in the U.K. - I tried another local town this morning - hoping to get the 3%, but no go - I had walked two and a half miles to get there - it rained heavily - and I walked back the 2.5 miles empty handed and wet - was rather peed off. Consoled myself by saying the exercise did me good.

thanks vikingeck - I've now ordered a litre of 3% from the bay - and agree neither of these are especially scarce, so won't treat with kid gloves. The 1863 four annas is/was chronically poorly centred anyway, so a very bad copy, but it's the only example I have to date.

Beryllium Guy - lol that wax paper comment keeps rising from the grave haha.

Seriously though, I wonder if I had different results because I was using el cheapo wax paper while you use el primo, class A grade. Who knows. It could be residue from modern self adhesives adhering or some weird thing. You mostly collect and soak classics, right?  I’ll have to try it again and see if I get similar results with some controls in place and do some comparisons using similar stamps, water, etc. 

once out of the water, and given a little shake, I place them onto a 12 mm sheet of Plastizote - a dense foam like white material to which they can't stick - the material has countless air holes, so drying is accomplished fairly quickly, it also stays flat and rigid. When all stamps are on the Plastizote, another similar sheet is placed on top and the sandwich left to dry.

Terri (philatelia), Chris (Beryllium Guy) is correct that I scrape off the residual adhesive using a credit card, or in the case of an effort today, a Marine Toys for Tots Foundation memership card. After scraping, I use a tissue to remove any remaining adhesive. In some instances, I'll apply a bit more Pure Citrus to the back of the stamp  and wipe with the tissue to remove remaining residue.

This afternoon, motivated by posts in this thread, I removed the below five stamps from their cardboard backing. I've scanned the result with the stamps positioned as they had been before removal. Those who closely trim, rather than remove, would not have been able to do so in this instance.

another of my passions in life is bookbinding, and one of the products used there is what is called a 'wax release paper' - it's used as a barrier/interleaf between contiguous surfaces that might stick to each other if given half a chance. In bookbinding there are occasions when considerable pressure is used, and in the vicinity of paste/pva this wax release paper guarantees that materials don't stick to each other. I've used this release paper to good effect after soaking - it reminds me to some extent of the wax-proof paper that's used to seal the contents of breakfast cereal products. But I digress - I now prefer my Plastizote. Beryllium Guy - no problem in moving to the subject-specific thread - thanks.

When soaking and cleaning fails!

attached to a scrap of tarry waterproof wrapping paper from a 1968 bank parcel the stamps have absorbed a nasty brown tinge through contact with oils in the wrapper.

soaking was easy and the stamps were saved and dried. 

However the next cleaning process failed.

1. 10 minutes in H2O2 

2 rinse in clean water, 

3 simmer in a saucepan for 3-4 minutes ( my favourite procedure when I am confident the inks are robust)

4 rinse and dry 


on the left two examples of what they ought to look like , on the right the stained examples 




the failure leads me to conclude the staining is permanent and indelible so , as they have been ruined, into the bin they go along with the clean £1 which unfortunately has 2 mutilated corner perf issues. 

So dear fellow collectors ( and hoarders,) some stamps are just not keepers.  Especially as they came in an envelope with up to 100 other examples of the £1