Ebay Chinese Tools Vs Tandy Basic Crafttool For Beginner

[Geebe]

Hey guys,

I am just wanting to try my hand at leather tooling. On Ebay a cheap set of 9 stamping tools only costs about $10 shipped, they look very similar to the Tandy basic tool set which costs $40+ plus shipping (I'm in Europe by the way).

Does anyone have experience of the cheapo ones? Would they be good enough to start with? I know the basic craft tools don't seem to have a great rep on here anyway, so I figure if I got into it, I would be going for something a bit better anyway.

Thanks!

[Thor]

I bought such a set in the beginning and I ended up asking for a refund as the stamps were not only cheap but bent right away. They aren't even worth the time looking at them.

[Art]

I agree with Thor. Even the Tandy tools are kind of iffy. Bends and breaks are not uncommon, and the impressions are rather muddy if you compare them to older Craftools. Better to buy older (should I say ancient) Craftool Co. stamps with just a number and no letter designation. These were made from decent steel and were hand carved. They will be marked Craftool Co. or RBS (you won't see many RBS stamps). There are folks on eBay that sell only these stamps in singles. They are worth the $9 they sometimes ask, but I wouldn't pay above that. If you are patient, you can buy groups or collections of these stamps for the $3-$5 range. You want the highest quality in basketweave stamps, and here the makers like Bob Beard and Barry King provide the best product, but the Craftool Co. basketweave stamps are in there a little behind. Basketweave stamps and border stamps take a real beating (heavy strikes and a lot of them) and need to be of quality steel or they bend and/or break. The Tandy and Chinese stamps appear to be cast from base metal (pot metal) including the business end (that makes the impression). After the first generation of stamps, they degrade rapidly into what they have today.

Art

[Thor]

I'd just like to add to what Art said... The old Craftool stamps have been continued by HideCrafter. If my latest info is correct, this company doesn't exist anymore either, but stamps are still available. In Europe this will mean extra costs due to customs. Barry King are pro stamps and worth what they are asking for. A cheaper alternative are craft Japan stamps. I'm owning a few and they are pretty good stamps. I'm pretty sure that there's a retailer for those stamps in England or closer to you. If not let me know and I'll give you the address of my retailer in Germany.

If I'm not totally wrong the stamps Tandy sells at this time are made by Ivan leather in Taiwan.

[Art]

This might seem impossible, but I have bought the same tool from Tandy and Goods Japan. They were the same tool in design only. The Tandy tool was poorly manufactured and obviously had even poorer quality control. The same tool from Goods Japan was a little more expensive but vastly superior in manufacture and finish, obviously QC too. How superior? Well, the holes were in the right places and orientation for the tool, the edges were sharp (not my level, but ok to use), and importantly, they worked. The Tandy, not so much. My experience (I once many years ago imported from Japan, Taiwan, and Korea: China wasn't even a blip on the radar at the time) Tandy may not know what happens when you go for the lowest cost over there. The business culture over there is to work to quality at reasonable cost, whereas here we work to cost and ultimately say yes or no based on the level of quality we will stoop to. You can tell a Chinese factory to produce something for $1, and they will, even though they well know that anything of reasonable quality will cost $1.50. They will do whatever you push them to do. Just my observation.

Art

[Geebe]

Thanks for all the replies.

I figured it was probably too good to be true

So, I think goods japan is the way to go for me, what would you consider a minimum starter set?

[Bush]

So I’m fairly new to leather working and am also looking for good stamps, as I bought a 20 pc set off eBay and my first thought when I saw them was I don’t think these will stamp.  And man these are tiny, is that common to think? I can’t seem to find reviews on the ones I bought verses any others and that leads to being frustrated.  I have found a guy in Bulgaria that has listings on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, that seem to be quality.  Any insight on those stamps before I leap into buying internationally? They seem to be in the 20-50$ range and I believe are brass.