Recycling The Dennison Fatboy

when I buy and strip a worldwide stamp album...i catalog the duplicates in a 102 card and I mount the stamps I need in my albums..some of the stamps I strip have the "old fashioned" Dennison wide body hinge...i find if I moisten these they stick very well in my album...i don't mean to sound unsanitary..there are many ways to moisten a hinge and I don't know how many germs survived the 30 years or so from the previous owner...but hey I have drank and ate some bad stuff in the last 73 years...so far I am still 168 pounds, 5'8" and above the grass !!

The same sanitary thing can be said about gummed stamps (in the days before self adhesive stamps came to be). In fact, I found this article from 100+ years ago that suggests that you could actually catch a disease from such things known as "postage stamp tongue":



Although this ancient article might be disputed in today's health care system, I think the best course of action is still to use a moistener (sponge, etc.) so as to avoid direct contact with the stamp (or the hinge) by licking it.

I have to agree with PHILB ,I have been relicking stamp hinges from other collectors for over fifty years ,and at my age{63 } Im not dead yet and can still get my foot up to do a headkick and a spinning back kick,yes I still fight in MMA classes .
So someone needs to find out if those small doses of bacteria from dozens of pervious collectors really don't make the body healthier.Besides maybe a few beers while hingeing stamps also helps.

I'm not a clean-freak by any means, but I balk at licking things others have licked. Older hinges from the 1940's and '50's were licked during a period when Polio and Tuberculosis were still common.

We've all had Polio inoculations, but TB is on the rise again. And more currently used hinges could have hepatitis germs, etc. Lazy as I am, I'll take the time to attach a new hinge, just to be on the safe side.

I usually lick my pinkie, then use it to moisten and re-mount stamps.

sounds like some serious stuff,maybe I should increase the alcohol drinking to kill-off the germs,while working on stamps or use a moist Q-tip

to tell the truth,I just purchased 50,000 or 50 packets in a box full of FOLD-O-HINGES on Ebay for $300.00 last month.

I heard some where that the old Dennison hinges that we all love used a glue that was made with horse hooves, which was common back then. The FDA stepped in and said it was not healthy and that type of glue was banned, That's the reason the newer hinges are the way they are. I sure if the manufacturers were let they would go right back to the old glue.
So maybe the glue is what to be worried about, and not the old germs left on the stamp hinge

Hi

I was told by a real old timer a number of years ago that the hinges had a double layer of gum and that is what made them peelable. I am guessing that it also makes them "re-usable".




If you use your wet pinkie to moisten the hinge then what difference if you lick the hinge. Same germs different taste

Jerry B

Better control in applying moistness.