HELP! Can't Separate Two Filters!

How stupid is this - I have a B&W FPro UV filter on my lens (77mm), to which I added a Hoya Pro1Digital Circular Polarizer (thin) to do landscapes. Now I can't get the C-Polarizer back off.

It's making me crazy - I've tried taking the two of them off the camera to try and separate but got nowhere.

Is there a trick to this or should I not have paired a B+W with a Hoya. This never happened with the 67" filters. How can I get them separated???

Try a rubber band. Or two, one on each. Should come off.

The bands didn't work, good idea tho.

My husband tried also with no luck. Tried damp cloths to try and get a grip, nope. The Hoya is just so thin, there's nothing to grab. It doesn't look like it is threaded together incorrectly.

Will water hurt these? My husband wondered about heating them up in hot water to see if they'll expand at all but I'm afraid it will damage the filter coating.

This is just great...

hm..use a tiny bit of oil? wd-40? i probably wouldnt boil them.

How about using a wrung-out chamois leather?

A little warmth will sometimes help loosen things up... Hair dryer?

plbb wrote in post #5718807
The bands didn't work, good idea tho

Rubber bands have yet to fail for me. Interesting.

I can't see how this can fail: take the filters off the lens. Now you have the 2 filters stuck together in your hand. Put one rubber band around one filter, and another rubber band around the other filter. Gently but firmly begin turning them off each other. It will also help to have them in a warmer environment.

Problem solved, my husband got them apart. He wrapped a tie strap around the outer filter, with the gritty part against the outer filter ridge and it came off very easily in fact.

I think that even with the rubber bands, we were not getting even pressure and actually bending it tighter together perhaps. I would think the bands should work as well so we obviously don't have the right hold for this technique.

Thanks so much for all the great ideas. I'm off to buy some filter wrenches and just may never again stack filters!

guess you learn not to stack 'em now, huh?

Yup !!

Good tools to have...

A set of filter wrenches are good tools to have. The might someday save you the price of a filter.

http://cgi.ebay.com …ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcm​dZViewItem

RPCrowe wrote in post #5719057
A set of filter wrenches are good tools to have. The might someday save you the price of a filter.

http://cgi.ebay.com …ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcm​dZViewItem

Thanks.... I had no idea what they even looked like.

RPCrowe wrote in post #5719057
filter wrenches

I didn't even know there was such a thing! Wow... for some reason I now have an overriding urge to go out and buy a set