Decided to try my hand and making some leather stamps from Stainless bolts

[JH837]

So I awhile back about 6 -7 months ago maybe more, I was itching to make some stamps and went and picked up el cheapo harbor freight 1x30/5” belt disc sander combo to give it a shot. Never got around to it as I was working 60 hours a week year round. Well finally got the time to try it out and decided to try to free hand a extra steep lifter to match my Barry king extra steep lifter but wanted a size down from the #2 I have now to fit in the leaves and small flower petals a bit better. I grabbed a bolt and started sanding on the belt with the 80 grit belt and kept dipping the bolt in cold water to keep from over heating the metal and work hardening it. I stupidly didn’t use a sharpie to mark the angle of the grind I wanted to have and size of the lifter so it was all free hand and going slow. Surprisingly I got pretty close to matching the BK lifter without even looking at it to compare until I had already done all the grinding and shaping on it. I have around a 40-45 degree angle on the lifter and now I just have to sand or file down the toe of the lifter to thin it out just a touch and then match the back profile to the BK version so it lifts the same as I really like how Barry Kings lifters work, then get to polishing the entire thing so it looks the part like the king tools also. I’m far from done but just thought I’d show that it’s not hard at all and if you’re on the fence or think you can’t do it, you can. If I can do it ANYONE CAN LOL !!! 

[DieselTech]

Nice work! Lil more sanding & polishing & it will be like Barrys.

[mhein68]

Great job! Trying this is my "to do" list!

[JH837]

Now I am going to try a size 2 or 3 thumbprint and if I like it then I’ll wait to get a 70 line per inch checkering file and make a vertical lined thumbprint then horizontal and a center shader would be nice instead of using a thumbprint for in its place. I really want to try my hand at making some figure carving/ pictorial carving stamps for the fun of it. I really like the pine tree stamps and grass/bush stamp that Barry kind produces but those stamps would require a ton of time to make each one as the filing is extensive and they are pretty detailed to take a shot at making one of them. I’ll keep posting stamps when I finish some more.