Heating branding iron

[Treesner]

Hey guys I have some brass branding irons I had made on Etsy but never seemed to find the perfect formula for hearing the things up! 

If I do wet veg tanned and cold stamp it looks good but I want to burn it in to have a black design. I’ve tried propane torch, around 30 seconds will do it but it’s in consistent and easy to burn to fast and not get it deep enough. Also if I stamp after dye sometimes it’ll bubble up and not look good 

If I use a heat gun it takes like 10 minutes but very hard to get black. 

 

You guys have any technichqes? I’m going to try propane heat from the back of the stamp next and see if that does anything 

[chrisash]

They are not for Branding like you see the cowboys use in films, the heating of these is at a far lower temp than than and its just to make a deep impression just like cold stamp

[Matt S]

What you need is a consistent temperature, which is hard to achieve without some method of measuring the temperature. On a shiny metal surface that's pretty difficult to do. I use two different heated presses for this sort of thing, which have thermocouples built into the heater blocks and thermostats which control the temperature to an acceptable margin of error (one I had re calibrate with a sharpie).

Before I bought these presses I used to use a heat gun to heat my stamp until my IR thermometer told me it was at the temperature that experiment had told me was what I needed, when I'd drop the tools, place the stamp on the leather, then emboss with my hydraulic press. This worked but was slow, fiddly, not very repeatable and was inconsistent with the impression it gave. The most basic Chinese heat embossers are like £120 if you don't mind waiting a couple weeks for it to arrive. If you can make do without the press you can get the heater block mounted on a handle for less money, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[Treesner]

On 12/7/2018 at 4:00 AM, Matt S said:

What you need is a consistent temperature, which is hard to achieve without some method of measuring the temperature. On a shiny metal surface that's pretty difficult to do. I use two different heated presses for this sort of thing, which have thermocouples built into the heater blocks and thermostats which control the temperature to an acceptable margin of error (one I had re calibrate with a sharpie).

Before I bought these presses I used to use a heat gun to heat my stamp until my IR thermometer told me it was at the temperature that experiment had told me was what I needed, when I'd drop the tools, place the stamp on the leather, then emboss with my hydraulic press. This worked but was slow, fiddly, not very repeatable and was inconsistent with the impression it gave. The most basic Chinese heat embossers are like £120 if you don't mind waiting a couple weeks for it to arrive. If you can make do without the press you can get the heater block mounted on a handle for less money, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Could you recommend a press? Setup that I could get? I see a lot of the band held (soldering  iron  style) ones but I don’t see a good way to measure temp with those press would be nice 

seems like kingsly is the popular model in the states. Should I get the one with the foil stamping setup if I may want to do some foil stamping in the future? 

Edited December 8, 2018 by Treesner

[Matt S]

1 hour ago, Treesner said:

Could you recommend a press? Setup that I could get? I see a lot of the band held (soldering  iron  style) ones but I don’t see a good way to measure temp with those press would be nice 

seems like kingsly is the popular model in the states. Should I get the one with the foil stamping setup if I may want to do some foil stamping in the future? 

Hi Treesner,

This is the sort of thing I have: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/WT-90AS-Small-Manual-Hot-Foil-Stamping-Guide-Bronzing-Machine-for-PVC-Skin-and-Paper-Card/32870844778.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.74.262a59b7lZE8kO&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10068_10130_10547_319_317_10548_10696_10192_10190_453_10084_454_10083_10618_10307_10820_10301_10821_538_10303_537_536_10059_10884_10887_100031_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_51,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=285e95e0-bbdc-40e7-b8fb-6efdf09e863a-10&algo_pvid=285e95e0-bbdc-40e7-b8fb-6efdf09e863a

Basically an aluminium block with heater cartridges and a thermocouple in it. Powered off the mains through a basic thermostat, all mounted on what's basically a cheap arbor press. There's usually a hole though the block through which you screw your embossing plate. Alternatively you can just stick it on with high-temp adhesive if you're not going to change it very often. They're also available without the press (just a handle), but I think that the amount of physical pressure needed to stamp leather is too much to provide consistently this way.

I have a second, similar one that's fitted for movable type.

No particular brands to recommend. I just bought the cheapest one I could find on Aliexpress which appeared to meet my requirements. Both I have are adequate, and got my toe in the water without spending 4x the amount on a UK-made one of similar specs.

[Treesner]

On 12/9/2018 at 1:51 PM, Matt S said:

Hi Treesner,

This is the sort of thing I have: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/WT-90AS-Small-Manual-Hot-Foil-Stamping-Guide-Bronzing-Machine-for-PVC-Skin-and-Paper-Card/32870844778.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.74.262a59b7lZE8kO&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10068_10130_10547_319_317_10548_10696_10192_10190_453_10084_454_10083_10618_10307_10820_10301_10821_538_10303_537_536_10059_10884_10887_100031_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_51,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=285e95e0-bbdc-40e7-b8fb-6efdf09e863a-10&algo_pvid=285e95e0-bbdc-40e7-b8fb-6efdf09e863a

Basically an aluminium block with heater cartridges and a thermocouple in it. Powered off the mains through a basic thermostat, all mounted on what's basically a cheap arbor press. There's usually a hole though the block through which you screw your embossing plate. Alternatively you can just stick it on with high-temp adhesive if you're not going to change it very often. They're also available without the press (just a handle), but I think that the amount of physical pressure needed to stamp leather is too much to provide consistently this way.

I have a second, similar one that's fitted for movable type.

No particular brands to recommend. I just bought the cheapest one I could find on Aliexpress which appeared to meet my requirements. Both I have are adequate, and got my toe in the water without spending 4x the amount on a UK-made one of similar specs.

Cool thank you. Do you think getting one that has the foil stamp function built on would be good to have? 

 

How did you setup your other one for movable type?