Drying Soaked Stamps Without A Drying Book

Hi Ricky,
one always has to address "urgency" in philately,
( Accidentally miss-hinge a stamp, and try and pull the hinge off----"Thin")

I use a standing pile of 3-5 books, newly soaked goes to the bottom, and I lift the top book when I want to mount.
Generally they stay in the book for a minimum 5 days, sometimes when I am not soaking they can be there for weeks :)

I am a world wide collector, so generally soak 1 country at a time, I currently have US at the moment. (4 "sandwiches")
I no longer soak everything, I soak only material I intend to mount, saves heaps of time. (Why soak duplicates?)

Nowadays, lifting stamps (self stick) involves another process.

Always tamp you water soaked with a clean cloth prior to putting on the freezer bag, that can save lots of time, and saves the books getting damp.

The pay off, is when you open the sandwich, and they slide off freely, flat as a halibut. I never get tired of that.

Sadly all of a sudden our drying books are failing and totally agree with this comment.

Just a check if I am doing it right.
I have now about 8 sandwiches with on top two heavy books.

The only doubt is that I keep adding wet stamps to the already made sandwiches.
Isn't that any problem???
Or can I stack till the ceiling ;)

I hope Rod can answer this doubt.

Eeeek !
Ricky, my man, you place each "sandwich" inside the book,
leave about 20 pages between each insertion.

Ergo, you need old books you no longer will need, I use old, thick, university course books from the 1980's, that have soft non glossy pages.

I did a bunch last evening 80 or so stamps free gift from an SCF member on paper.
4 "sandwiches" in 1 book, goes to the bottom, book above with 55 USA comes to the top.
Hope that sorts you out...post back if not.

Remember to tamp the wet stamps first on a clean tea towel, you really don't want them going into the sandwich wet.

Current record....8 books in a tier with about 6 sandwiches in each.

Well, the sandwich method from Rod seems to work. But how many sandwiches are the max for under two heavy books?
Because I do about 100 stamps per batch... ;)

Could be self evident.
If you do 100 stamps per day, that's 3-4 sandwiches in 1 book,
then after 5 days, you should have 6 books high.

The top book by then is dry, remove sandwiches, slide the stamps off the freezer bags, sort and mount.

Repeat ad nauseum.

Thank you rod for all the information.
If I insert the sandwiches in a book, every sandwich apart? So ie. one sandwich on page 20,then 1 sandwich on page 40 and so on? Or just 5 sandwiches in the middle of the book?

Greetz Ricky

That's it Ricky
Off you go...and good luck,
remember, don't waste valuable stamp time by soaking duplicates..........

After 5 days you should slide off some beauties.

Am I doing it so at the right way?

That's it, top two for weight I presume...not suitable for sandwiches.
You don't need a lot of weight, a house brick is fine.

Depending on your climate, your books should dissipate the moisture,
if you feel your book pages appear damp , then stamps may begin to curl when you release them.

Slide 'em off the freezer bag, pick out those stamps to meet your criteria, postmarks etc etc, then bag up the leftovers for Red Cross or whatever.

The Sky is the limit.

Do not soak coloured envelope material, self stick, Netherlands Indies, or fugitive / aniline ink stamps.

Tally Ho!

Well rod, the stamps we're dry, but.
I pulled, almost tearing my stamps apart.
And the colors still come apart from the stamp as shown on the images below.

Should I try, putting the wet stamps directly on the freezer bag and not use any paper?
Only tamp with a clean tea towel?
Or should I thy a drying book??

Wow! goodness me Ricky, sorry for your loss,
Send me an address, and I'll send you some stamps free .
What country/s do you prefer?

Sheesh, not sure where you have gone wrong, I have been doing this for 12 years, and only ever had one stamp stick, turned out a self adhesive.

I'll go through it one last time.
1. Soak your stamps in a bowl (cold water only, say 20 minutes to 1 hour)
2. Remove your stamps (after they have floated off) , and place into a bowl of clean water to rinse (gently)
3. Remove stamps and place on a clean (new) teatowel
4. place a clean teatowel on top and tamp excess moisture.
(stamps should be moist and flexible but not "wet")
Place (face up on a freezer bag) which is on top of 1 sheet of A4 paper,
Place A4 sheet of paper on top of the stamps (the sandwich)
Place in between pages of a book to dry.

Apart from the soaking, it takes me about 10 minutes to do 50 stamps,
I use tongs/tweezers to handle the stamps
I do it whilst making my morning cuppa !

(If) you get the hang of it, it is such an easy regime.

PS...consider, had you bought a "drying book" you may have damaged
it by wet stamps, so you saved yourself some money there.

Good luck ...persevere... success from endeavor !

PPS: your book appears to have shiny pages, try and get an old book with
unsurfaced paper, the science behind it, encourages the moisture from the stamps, migrate into the paper of the book, then to atmosphere.

I always just air-dried my stamps on a towel and pressed them afterwards. They don't curl too much if you wash all the glue off the back.

For soaking operations, I use only spade tip tongs to avoid damage to vulnerable wet stamps. This Is my favorite pair, Showgard #907 with bent tips. 150mm/5.9375in. in length.

I am of a different school, Bob.
I prefer, and ONLY use the Prinz long pointy nose tweezers.

I can pluck the eyebrows from a mosquito, whilst in flight.

I find the spade types can blunt perforation teeth.