Stamping A Lot Of Letters.

[Phatdaddy]

Hi Everyone,

I have never been able to master this, but now I've been asked to make an article with a lot of stamping.

I have recent Tandy alphabet sets in all sizes and I can't get over how poorly aligned and square these things are. I've been practicing on scrap and I can't seem to get a consistant straight word regardless of how much care or time I take to "align" them. I really want to do this project for the guy as I admire the sentiment of the gift, but I'm worried with all the lettering he's asked for that I won't be able to make something I'm proud of.

Anyone able to share their success?

Kevin

[electrathon]

Look up information on old fashoned printing. It is called Letterpress. The type letters work well embossing on leather. You will also need a press of some sort to push them in.

Using this method your lettering will look straight, true and not in a tacky font like the letters that come from Tandy.

Aaron

[Phatdaddy]

Thanks for the suggestion, i'll definitely explore other options going forward. I'm still faced with this project in the mean time, there must be people using the craftool stamps. Just looking for any tips to get by at least this project.

Kevin

[Wishful]

I made quite a few bookmarks with Tandy's Celtic Rune letters and had the same concern. So, I ended up typing the words/letters into a computer program the way I wanted them to be then printed that out as my template to trace on the bookmarks. I also put a faint center line down the middle to line them up. Most turned out great but I had a little jumping of the letters - that is just my skill issue. I am hoping to make jig like has been discussed in another thread - then it should work out great. Good luck

[Tree Reaper]

I use a fence against the top of the letters and leave the last letter in place when stamping the next.

Thanks for the suggestion, i'll definitely explore other options going forward. I'm still faced with this project in the mean time, there must be people using the craftool stamps. Just looking for any tips to get by at least this project.

Kevin

[Dwight]

I use a fence against the top of the letters and leave the last letter in place when stamping the next.

Tree Reaper has the science of that project.

If you also want to make the letters come out more "even" as far as how they look in depth, darkness, etc. you may want to look at a $35 to $50 arbor press you can get from Harbor Freight. It only takes a few scraps and you can master that machine and the Tandy stamps to the point that it REALLY looks good.

May God bless,

Dwight

[McJeep]

Hey Kevin, I also got sick and tired of the lack of "calibration" in the Tandy stamps - poorly designed IMHO - so I came up with two things that work for me when doing dog collars with names on them.

Vertical alignment - I built an adjustable fence - 3/4 plywood board and a slotted piece of bar stock that bolts down to it - I use washers to change the height of the fence depending on the weight of leather it has to clear - if it's not an item that can be slid against the fence I just "lightly" scribe a line with a stylus to follow with the top or bottom of the letter block - they seem not bad for calibration in the vertical

Horizontal alignment - this is where the bugger of these things comes in, NONE of em usually have the same excess on the sides of the actual letter script (leaving the last letter in place seldom resulted in even spacing) - I use a clear plastic ruler - when I stamp a letter I take the stamp off - then I align the ruler to desired spacing on the very edge of the last letter stamped (the blank bit on the end of the ruler is usually 1/4" ;0) - I then take the next letter and slide it over to touch the end of the ruler (the actual letter script, not the side of the block) - remove the ruler while holding the stamp in place - whack that mother!!!

Works for me and my lettering is now spaced properly every time - give it a shot bud.

I also added a piece of masking tape to the ruler so I could write a warning that anyone touching said ruler would have a drastically shortened lifespan - yeah, I'm married and have kids ;0)

Hope this works!

Rob

Edited October 26, 2011 by McJeep

[stelmackr]

Hi Everyone,

I have never been able to master this, but now I've been asked to make an article with a lot of stamping.

I have recent Tandy alphabet sets in all sizes and I can't get over how poorly aligned and square these things are. I've been practicing on scrap and I can't seem to get a consistant straight word regardless of how much care or time I take to "align" them. I really want to do this project for the guy as I admire the sentiment of the gift, but I'm worried with all the lettering he's asked for that I won't be able to make something I'm proud of.

Anyone able to share their success?

Kevin

For some description of using letterpress type on leather try this:

www.pslac.org/download_area/Typography%20in%20Leather%20Article.pdf

Bob Stelmack

www.pslac.org

[Blake]

Hi Everyone,

I have never been able to master this, but now I've been asked to make an article with a lot of stamping.

I have recent Tandy alphabet sets in all sizes and I can't get over how poorly aligned and square these things are. I've been practicing on scrap and I can't seem to get a consistant straight word regardless of how much care or time I take to "align" them. I really want to do this project for the guy as I admire the sentiment of the gift, but I'm worried with all the lettering he's asked for that I won't be able to make something I'm proud of.

Anyone able to share their success?

Kevin

Hi Kevin

I'm not sure how many letters that you need to stamp. If you have a Hobby Lobby, Micheal's or other craft store nearby you might want to look at their letter templates. You have a variety of letter styles, upper and lower case and in sizes from 1/2" and up.

The templates /stencils are thin and transparent (blue) so it is very simple to align your letters . Now the hard part, You have to hand cut them with a swivel knife and then bevel each letter. A little time consuming but well worth the extra effort if you are looking for a professional looking product that doesn't look like the common stamps that are available.

Kind Regards

Blake

[Phatdaddy]

Thanks a ton all for the suggestions, I wish a new company that cared about their products and were reasonable would rise up and make all this stuff and make it with some sort of pride.

Thank you all,

Kevin

[Northmount]

One thing that I found with stamping with letters or other larger stamps is the stamp and mallet always bounces and if I'm not really careful, I get double impressions (like a ghost image). Instead of using a mallet, I have started using a 'dead-blow' hammer. Wood workers use them. They don't bounce, the stamp stays in place and no ghost image. You can whack it again a few more times while leaning the stamp in sort of a rotational motion to get the image to have consistant depth across the width of the image.

The dead-blow hammer has a cavity in the head loosely filled with lead shot. So if you don't use a press, this may help you avoid the ghost image.

Happy stamping!

[TomG]

I think Tandy has a free video on their site that shows how to stamp the letters evenly.

Tom

[LNLeather]

Hi Kevin

I didn't see if you mentioned if your lettter's need to be straight or round.

I thought I'd mention I figured out how to put letters in a circle on coasters

and thought i'd put a link to that info here, just in case it might be of help...

stamping circular letters

Although it does kinda sound like the quality of your stamps is a big problem,

and that is a drag......

I found this picture over on songofthepaddle where MagiKelly has a tutorial

for making a leather journal cover. I thought this might be helpful

Good luck with your project.

[ozzie111]

I just wanted to post my experiences here.

I had a client request a folio with a couple of Bible verses on the inside.

I did not think my carving skills would allow me to hand carve the verses,

and knew it would be almost impossible to do with the Tandy stamps.

I followed stelmacr's link, and had a plate made by these folks.

http://www.amanopress.com/

He was running a special, and it only cost me $32.00 shipped to Texas.

I had to use a hydraulic press to properly impress the stamp, but the result

is exactly what I wanted.

Here is a shot of the plate

And a shot of the impression on the leather

Cheers

Edited November 16, 2011 by ozzie111

[randypants]

I just wanted to post my experiences here.

I had a client request a folio with a couple of Bible verses on the inside.

I did not think my carving skills would allow me to hand carve the verses,

and knew it would be almost impossible to do with the Tandy stamps.

I followed stelmacr's link, and had a plate made by these folks.

http://www.amanopress.com/

He was running a special, and it only cost me $32.00 shipped to Texas.

I had to use a hydraulic press to properly impress the stamp, but the result

is exactly what I wanted.

Here is a shot of the plate

And a shot of the impression on the leather

Cheers

that's F'ing awesome!!

$32? can they do anything? or just letters?

[Phatdaddy]

Thanks everyone, been busy with work and deer hunting. Lots of great Ideas, thanks to all that took the time to help. I'm sure this thread will help plenty of others too!

Kevin

[ozzie111]

Randypants,

I think all they do is letters, and probably some flourishes. This type of type is primarily for fancy printing like

wedding invitations. You might e-mail them though. They were very helpful, and fast.

Cheers,

Oz