Hey, Kids!!! Make Your Own Hawid Mounts at Home!

Keeping all the various sizes of stamp mounts required for one's collection can be quite a hassle. You can use a larger size mount, if you don't have the proper size handy, if you don't mind your stamps looking like a 6-year-old wearing his dad's shirt. Or, you can buy Hawid mounts, which can be trimmed to the size you need. But, if you feel that Showgard/Scott/Prinz mounts are an expensive proposition, Hawid mounts take that expense to a whole 'nother level - not to mention the fact (which I will mention, anyway) that removing and reinserting stamps once they are on the album page is an exercise in manual dexterity that always runs the risk of damage to our little treasures.

This morning, I decided to see what I could do by way of transforming my Showgard mounts to Hawid-style mounts. And, while it does add a bit more time and effort to the stamp-mounting process, the results are worth it, to me. Here are the steps involved:

Start with a Showgard mount size that is taller than the proper size you would use for a particular stamp. Otherwise, when you trim the weld off, the top margin will be too narrow, relative to the bottom margin.

Take a length of Showgard mount, and trim off the top edge so that the mount will be 3 or 4 mm taller than the stamp. 


You could start with mounts already cut to length, but if you are making mounts for a long set, you may get inconsistent results (see the picture 4 posts down).