Why is SuperSafe Stamp Lift used only on the back of stamps?

hi Stamper49  -  sorry, regret unable to help re the question as to Vidiforms liquid  -  obviously, ultimately the question would be best answered by knowing what type of adhesive the perpetrator of this problem had used (though appreciate we can't know that)  -  Araldite might prove a real problem, but something like Gloy or flour and water paste might be less so.
Have you yet tried using simply warm water and soaking for an hour or two  -  always best to use the least invasive method first?          Appreciate it wouldn't be ideal, but at the end of the day if these stamps simply won't shift and damage looks likely if you pursue more heavyweight action, you might simply cut round them and leave on the backing paper, permanently.        

Thanks for your post, Norman (Stamper49 ) and for your responses, paul1 and stainlessb

Norman, is the album that you want to preserve a hard-bound book or one with loose-leaf pages?  If it is one of the old, hard-bound ones, then you need to decide how important it is to preserve it intact.  In my experience, and I have several vintage albums with mounted stamps in them, it is very difficult to remove stamps that have been stuck down for decades without damaging either the stamp or the album page or both.

In most cases, I have wanted the stamps more, and I have either disassembled or simply cut up the pages to soak the stamps off in warm water.  In cases where I really wanted to preserve the album, I have had to leave it as is, with the stamps stuck where they are.

I have had one interesting case of a hard-bound album, printed c.1901-1910, with lots of stamps stuck down on the pages, often on both sides.  Luckily, that album wasn't too large dimensionally.  The pages were smaller than a standard sheet of notebook paper.  The binding was already in poor condition, but I liked the page headers, and I wanted to preserve those.  So, I took the whole thing apart, and I soaked entire pages, one at a time, using a 9" x 12" Pyrex glass baking dish, which was big enough for the page to lie flat.

That way, I was able to save the pages and the stamps, but I had to destroy what was left of the binding in the process.  I was able to press-flatten and dry the individual pages using the same method I do for the stamps, and it worked quite well.  Of course, if you have a loose-leaf album, you should be able to remove individual pages without damaging them and treat them one at a time, if that's what you really want to do. 

In the end, you will need to decide what's more important for you.  And if you do decide to attempt any removal process, do as little damage as possible.  Good luck with whatever you decide!

Hi Norman - those stamps that might benefit from cleaning, individually, can be treated once they're off the page. I think the rationale for soaking the back of the backing page, rather than the face of the stamp, would be the obvious one - which is that although most stamps can tolerate some liquid when 'soaking off paper', it's the adhesive here that we're trying to dissolve, so best to soak the back of the page paper and get at the glue that way, thus avoid making the stamp wet. There are some stamps where colours can dissolve or run, so as we don't know which ones then better not to wet the face of the stamp. One of the most popular adhesives prior to modern pva/Araldite glues was pearl glue aka animal glue, though for home use I recall my Mother making up some ordinary flour and water glue when I was very young. I don't think wetting the backing paper poses any risk in terms of dirt migrating into the stamp. Sorry to hear about the humidity - but if you can do a little work at the moment then perhaps the best way forward might be to cut a couple of stamps out of the backing page/sheet, and treat them individually by wetting the back of the paper with 'Stamp Lift Fluid' and see what happens. Presumably you have an idea as to which stamps are of negligible value as opposed to Mauritius 'blues' - so you might try those of very limited value first. Do please keep us up-dated:-)

stainlessb paul1 philatelia and Beryllium Guy

Hide glue, from my cabinet making experience, is brittle, and yellow, I don't have that in this old album, thankfully. When I was a kid we called paste made out of flour, "wheat paste" and used a ton of it in elementary school, it's grainier than whatever was used here.

paul1 Humidity is not a problem here on the edge of the Great Basin Desert in Northeastern California, the Nevada border is about 15 miles away. Though this area is more humid than where we lived in Montana. This area is much hotter than what we were used to in Montana, last week it was 103F, this week around 93-96F. Thankfully it cooled off tonight, with most of the windows open.

So, as we used to say, even in the US - in for a penny, in for a pound. I tried the Stamp Lift on a cheapo stamp, country is not important, and it worked rather well, though the backing paper was easy to push through when separating the stamp.

After that I tackled the Penny Black, it came off the album page relatively easy after soaking the backing page, except for the center of the stamp, where a remnant of the page remained attached. With a bit more Stamp Lift applied, the album page remnant came off easily. Extreme care would be needed to avoid leaving holes in this album's pages, when removing stamps.

I soaked the Penny Black in a dish of warm water, with a drop of the dish soap that Terri uses, Seventh Generation, rinsed it well, and it's now drying in a Desert Magic drying book. In a couple of days, I will try taking a picture of it, and also posing a question to the forum, asking the members if they can spot in what way I find this particular Penny Black more interesting than others.

I haven't mounted a stamp in an album for around 60 years, and when I knew I was getting a Penny Black in, I held off, so that the "First Postage Stamp" would be the first postage stamp I would put in an album in a long, long, time.

Thank you,

Norman

Good morning Norman

you must be somewhere near Weed-Yreka I'm guessing by the description?

Most all the early GB QV stamps up to the 1882-84 issues can be soaked, for extended times. Not that they need to be, but it seems to cause no harm.

I'm in Sacramento and things are generally dry, using the Desert Magic books, the very next day.

cheers
Stan

paul1

Hello paul1,

I bought a few sizes of Uni-Safe clear, top front load, mounts to try. I've been told they are a great improvement over the old clear crystal tubes we used back in the day. I also bought a Fiskars wire guide trimmer to size the length and heights of mounts, without the stamp inside, and will see how that goes.

This particular Penny Black has 4 margins, though not perfect, but it's a stamp that I've been looking for since I was a kid.

Thank you,

Norman

stainlessb

Hello Stan,

Darrah Springs Fish Hatchery, it's been awhile since we dropped in there, 65 years or so.

The Belgium imperf's and perf's first/second series: looks like it will take some time to figure them out.

Norman