I Made A Monumental Discovery

[Shenster]

I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but I did think of it on my own. I have some large stamps; an eagle, scorpion, concho, coiled snake, and a celtic design. It is so easy to mess these up. I mean, you've got to come down on the stamp handle with a mallet just right with each blow. Hit the top of the handle just a little bit off, and you can end up with a double image in the leather. As much as I've practiced, there's still no guarantee I'd be able to get a perfect imprint each and every time.

Well, now I can. I got a heavy duty C-clamp, wet the leather, and clamped the stamp down onto the leather at the edge of a table. Perfect!

[Hi Im Joe]

Yes! Another way to achieve this is with an arbor press.

[Shenster]

Sounds expensive.

[Hi Im Joe]

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-arbor-press-3552.html

That's the one I got. Plus you can usually find a coupon. I use it to affix my makers mark.

[Shenster]

Ohhhh! Fifty bucks ain't bad! I guess just the word "arbor" made me envision the three-digit bracket. But, yeah, that arbor would be a very reasonable investment. Thanks!

[Hi Im Joe]

No problem. There is a bunch of info out there on people modifying arbor presses to accept different hand tools.

[billybopp]

Arbor presses are great, I have one and love it. Sounds like a C clamp would work pretty nicely too. There are times when neither of those would do the trick, tho ... Like when you need to stamp far from an edge. The best way I've found for that is one of the heavy duty stamp handles for those stamps that will take them ... In combination with a dead blow hammer, which helps to prevent bouncing and double-images.

Hope that helps

Bill

[Northmount]

I second using a good dead blow hammer. You can hold the stamp in the same spot with no bounce. If you get a deep enough impression, you can fit the stamp back in and touch up any light areas by tilting the stamp slightly in that direction. Obviously need a good stamp handle to do this.

Tom