What do the letter prefixes on Craftool stamps indicate?

[AEBL]

Some of them I can figure out: P=pear shader, V=veiner, U=mule tracks, S=seeder ... but K, A, X ... ?

X=basket?

I'm interested in floral carving, but have zero experience. I got a collection of tools from a local guy. I'm sure that there are people that understand the purpose of the various stamps - but sometimes if your only clue is what the stamp looks like in leather, it is still a mystery. For instance if I hadn't watched some videos, the purpose of mule tracks would have been lost on me, I would have assumed it was some sort of border stamp.

Edited 19 hours ago by AEBL

[bruce johnson]

The letters came in after 1963. Before that the stamps are called "Pre Letter" by collectors. They used the letters for general stamp categories in the catalogs. Some of them as you say are intuitive - P for pear shaders, etc. Others like bevelers, basket stamp, and borders all start with "B" so they used other letters.

To confuse things further, some stamps of a certain number were discontinued over the years and another totally different stamp came in with that number.

[chuck123wapati]

it helps a bunch if you can find an old Tandy catalog I have an old tattered copy that i still go to sometimes. 

[Northmount]

2 hours ago, AEBL said:

Some of them I can figure out: P=pear shader, V=veiner, U=mule tracks, S=seeder ... but K, A, X ... ?

X=basket?

I'm interested in floral carving, but have zero experience. I got a collection of tools from a local guy. I'm sure that there are people that understand the purpose of the various stamps - but sometimes if your only clue is what the stamp looks like in leather, it is still a mystery. For instance if I hadn't watched some videos, the purpose of mule tracks would have been lost on me, I would have assumed it was some sort of border stamp.

A couple files that may help, especially conversions for a number of old stamps, or similar to old stamps.

CraftoolConversionChart s.pdf

#90 1961 Craftool Leather Stamps.pdf

[AEBL]

@Northmount - thanks that helps!!

[Beehive]

My various stamps carry a V, D or an X prefix. One with no prefix. Every stamp I have came from Tandy. 2004-2006 era. 

I also have a bunch of stamps marked, "US Stamp". 

[AEBL]

I have some "US Stamps" also, as well as some Craftool look-alikes (?) that are stamped with TAIWAN, but otherwise look like Craftool stamps. They're the same yellowish-chrome (nickel, perhaps?) color, with a similar knurling pattern on the handle, with similar product codes to the Craftool-stamped articles. They seem fairly-okay quality.

I also have a lot of duplicate stamps ... is eBay the only place to offload them?

Edited 14 hours ago by AEBL

[Northmount]

5 hours ago, AEBL said:

I also have a lot of duplicate stamps ... is eBay the only place to offload them?

You can sell them in the Marketplace here.

[AEBL]

3 hours ago, Northmount said:

You can sell them in the Marketplace here.

I will probably try that in a bit, thanks.