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Brand new forum member here, I am curious about the business etiquette when bidding a custom stamping job. I have a potential client who wants a series of leather cupholders and coasters with their logo stamped on it. The custom stamp I am looking at is about $100, and it will be a small job, I'm guessing under 50 pieces total to start, with option to restock ongoing since it is for a friend's coffee company that I also work for. The fact that I work for them, and that we are friends, gives me a unique opportunity to approach cost sharing options to start up the equipment costs. However, I don't want to rely on this relationship to do something strange or unusual in the leather business model. Does anyone ever ask to split the cost for a custom stamp up front, or is it more professional to work the cost of the stamp into the per piece price? Thanks in advance for any insight here! I'm exited to engage with the forum, I've been an occasional lurker here for years.

Hi all! Any suggestions on where to find a custom embossing stamp for larger items? I've seen smaller stamps for something like a makers mark, but I'm looking for stamps that could be as large as 12" x 5" that has a custom shape. I would like to potentially place this in a hydraulic press to stamp/emboss a mass produced item.

Hi everyone. I recently made up some custom key holders for a buddy of mine's truck group. He wanted an exact replica of how they used to make them in the 60s-70s like his. I cut/stamped/carved everything by hand and not gonna lie it was a giant pain in the ass just to do 10. but they did turn out pretty cool. 1st pic is mine on the right and the original 50+ year old one on the left. pretty damn close! Anyways the owner of the shop/group loved them and posted a picture on his instagram of it. Well now he has 100+ people who are dying to buy one. So he wants to order 500 key holders with his logo and info. So obviously I am going to automate the process as much as possible which means I am in need of a custom die and custom stamps! I am just looking for quotes at the moment so I can determine a wholesale price for him or if this is even worth doing. What I need exactly is the attached logo and the 3 text lines in the picture of my hand stamped one. He want to do the shape of the 3 in the 2nd pic so logo and info will need to fit in that rectangle space. He also want the embossed stitching border if possible but I am not sure if that is something that will be worth doing for the price. I am having trouble finding a stamp maker who does more than just make small maker's marks but doesn't charge a crazy amount for a bigger stamp. I do not have a clicker so it would need to be a mallet stamp. Both stamps will probably be in the 1''x 2'' range. Anyone have any experience with getting bigger logos and stuff done in a stamp or know of any contacts? I have the die design ready to go with Texas custom dies but I am not getting anywhere with the stamps and he wants these asap. I am pretty new in leatherworking and may or may not have bitten off more than I can chew. There might be a good reason you cant get these new anywhere...But I really want to try to make this work if possible. Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

A couple weeks after I started this leather working thing, I was standing in the local Tandy store. You know, like you do, not wanting to spend $1000 but also wanting to as well. Another man was stopped in and was asking about custom stamps. I didn't say anything but my mind got to working. I deep carve marble all the time. That might work. A few days later, I'm making some carved glass for someone, and I try an piece of granite I had laying around. FAIL. The porosity of the granite did not leave a smooth carved surface. If it would contact the leather it would leave a pebbled imprint. DANG IT. Having previously re tiled some in my bathroom I have a fair number of 1x1 and 1x2 inch glass tiles. Glass used for tiles is about as tough as glass gets. The key is to supporting the glass fully on the back side. Solution, 2 part epoxy tiles onto wood dowels larger than the tile. I epoxied, created a pattern or 9, and deep carved the pattern onto the glass tile. My 1st stamps (pictures) were using a standard leather making mallet, striking it quite hard. I've since started using a 1/2 ton Arbor Press from Harbor Freight. As long as the stamp is against moist leather I doubt one would be able to break it. The only problem one might have is if they dropped it or dropped something else into it.. say a normal metal stamp. For as easy as they are to make, even if one did break it, just whip up a new one. I've made 12 some stamps without having to buy anything. When you are ready and want to expand into making your own I can go deeper into what it takes to make the high detailed patterns. You could always wrap in electrical tape and hand cut your pattern for that matter.