I have a stamp album with preprinted pages. I would like to remove the stamps, but it appears that the stamps were glued down with some kind of glue. I would like to save the stamps. I am not worried about the pages in the book, just the same. Thanks in advance.
Everything depends on the glue and the stamps. A vague indication of how soluble the glue is is the age of the album.The older the album the more likely the stamps are glued with a water soluble glue. Consider are the stamps printed with a water resistant ink? I would refer to catalogues to see if the stamps are going to be capable of being soaked without the ink washing off. if the stamp ink is water resistant cut the stamps fairly closely on the pagere then float the piece on clean water and keep checking if the stamp will either slide off the paper or lifts off. change the water if it gets dirty. If the ink is going to wash off then put the stamp on the bit of page on a piece of wet kitchen towel. design uppermost and try to get the stamp off before the water gets through to the ink. I find this is easier than it sounds. You could try one of the stamp lifting solutions. I would proceed cautiously find out what the stamps are. Start by trying to remove damaged and inferior stamps to see what works. I am assuming the stamps aren't common cheapos you could buy for pennys anyway.
The album was printed back in the 1950s if I remember right. Some of the pages are kinda fragile. when I get a chance I will check the stamps themselves.
Excellent advice from Noocassel. If the stamps were glued down with a gum arabic (water soluble) solution, then you can remove stubborn glue remnants with a soft camel hair, nylon, or sable artist's brush in warm water.
If the stamps were glued down with Elmer's glue (polyvinyl chloride, or PVC) this glue is water soluble, but very resistant to removal. So attempting to remove the stamps would not be worth your trouble unless they are quite valuable.
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