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Soaking Off and Cleaning of Stamps |
[ ¤¤¤åª© ] |
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| Contributed by YL |
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| Cutting |
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 When you have sighted a stamp on paper that you absolutely need to acquire, get your cutting tools ready to extract it. A relatively sharp penknife would be good; just be sure to not make the same cut on your fingers as on the paper. Make a straight and neat cut around the stamp, making sure to leave a small margin of paper on all sides like a border framing the stamp of your desire. You should undertake precautions to avoid damaging the edges of the stamp. |
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| Soaking |
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 Having extracted the stamp from the paper, place it on fresh white, wet blotting paper with the stamp's face skyward. Alternatively or if you do not have blotting paper on hand, you could use a bowl of water instead. Both serve the same purpose of soaking through the backing paper attached to the stamp and then loosening the adhesive material or glue on the underside of the stamp. It might be good to leave it for a few hours for this "soak & loosen" action to thoroughly loosen
and thus, better prepare the stamp for lifting. |
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| Lifting |
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 The stamp can be gently peeled from the backing paper after some soaking time has passed. Care and caution should be taken in not being too hurried and rough with this delicate process. Stamps are weaker and much more fragile when wet so it would be a smart move to try out this lifting process with stamps that are relatively insignificant to you. This process can be affectionately likened to bringing a raging bull and a "slow-mo-does-it" turtle to a china shop; one will tear through and trash the place like a tornado while the other's preciseness with each step taken brings him closer to getting the best out of the shop's goods.
contd... |
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