[Johnniewalker]

First of all, if you have replied to any of my posts and I haven't responded, I apologize. I just got busy with finals for school and lost track of my emails.
Anyway, I'm looking to have a custom hand (hammer) stamp made. This is the standard set I have (A-Z, 0-9) and it works great:

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-L...s=metal+stamps

The reason I put the link is because honestly I don't know what the hardness of the steel should be or any of that. I will only be stamping .999 silver and occasionally .925 silver, if that helps.

What I want for the stamp is a 0.6'' x 0.6'' image of this figure (positive can be what is in black or vice-versa-whatever looks good and is easiest):


Finally, I don't have a big budget. But, I feel like what I want (as in similar to the stamps in the Amazon link) is pretty basic. Literally my bottomline is $65.

I REALLY hope someone can help me out at that level. Last thing-please email me at [email protected] because I never remember to check messages here, and I prefer email correspondence.

Anyways, thanks and hope to hear from you!

[handlewanker]

Hi, if you don't get any replies you might have to DIY it using an acid etching method.

First you need to make a FULLY HARDENED stamp blank like a punch but with a smooth face to whatever design of tool body you already have.

You need to use a tool steel for this and get it hardened.

For etching you must work with the steel in the hard state.

Then you coat the end face with an acid etch resist compound like wax, and manually engrave/remove the wax in the areas that must be lower than the face so that the areas not removed by the acid will be the design you want to have.

This is the DIY method.......it gets more expensive if you get the design CNC engraved on a soft tool steel and then get it hardened.

Tool steel (drill rod will also do) will have the strength in the body to resist collapsing under pressure, and ordinary mild steel, although easy to work with as it's soft, when it is case hardened will soon break down as the core collapses from the blow.

You can also have the design spark eroded if you know the process or send it out to have it done.....produce your artwork before hand to scale reqd.

A DIY spark eroder is not all that hard to make, and again the material being eroded needs to be in the hard state.

The design would be in a negative mode in copper as the electrode, and it only needs to penetrate .010"into the steel body to have a punch that will work.

Using copper as the electrode you can punch the design into the copper by hand with a suitable hardened punch, being aware that the area you want to have prominent on the part you want in silver, must be LOW on the copper electrode to stop it touching the punch.......the area on the copper that touches the punch will erode it away......that is the background.

It depends on whether you want the design to be sunk into the silver or in relief with the background sunk down.
Ian.

[gkoenig]

If you have trouble finding someone to do this (and stamps are sort of a specialized sort of deal), my business ordered a custom stamp from this outfit:

Infinity Stamps - Quality Custom Metal Stamps for Marking Steel, Jewelry, Leather, Clay, Wood and Plastics

They were fantastic to deal with, very quick, competent and our stamp served us very well. We eventually moved to laser engraving (on leather). Total cost for our stamp was about $100. You could DIY, but if $40 is a problem, you've got bigger problems with your venture...

[echokid]

This is funny he posted this again. I already quoted this job for him and he said lets go ahead with it. Told him I needed 50% up front via PayPal and boom never heard anything again.

[handlewanker]

Probably doesn't have a Paypal account......oh well.
Ian.