What type press?

[Chris623]

I asked this question on another forum, but have received no answers.  You guys seem willing to answer questions, so here goes.

How do you press your maker's mark in sheaths? I know I can take a 5# hammer and "whack" the mark in cased leather. How professional the results are will depend on how much rest I got the night before. (now that I don't drink, a hangover wouldn't be an issue) Then there is the Arbor Press. Nice, neat, clean, proper registration and uniform depth. Very professional. (don't own one and don't have any idea what tonnage it would take) Then, of course, there is the old standby H-frame hydraulic press. Mine is a 20 ton press from Harbor Freight. Needless to say 20 tons is far too much pressure for a delicate material like leather.............but it WILL work and I already own it. With no gauges there's no way to really reliably figure out when enough is enough. So what do you use to get consistently professional indentions in your sheaths and other leather working projects?

[chrisash]

One ton arbor will do the job OK and about £50 in UK

[fredk]

I have and use the Tandy press. 1.25T pressure afair. More expensive than a bog-standard arbor press

[chuck123wapati]

9 hours ago, Chris623 said:

I asked this question on another forum, but have received no answers.  You guys seem willing to answer questions, so here goes.

How do you press your maker's mark in sheaths? I know I can take a 5# hammer and "whack" the mark in cased leather. How professional the results are will depend on how much rest I got the night before. (now that I don't drink, a hangover wouldn't be an issue) Then there is the Arbor Press. Nice, neat, clean, proper registration and uniform depth. Very professional. (don't own one and don't have any idea what tonnage it would take) Then, of course, there is the old standby H-frame hydraulic press. Mine is a 20 ton press from Harbor Freight. Needless to say 20 tons is far too much pressure for a delicate material like leather.............but it WILL work and I already own it. With no gauges there's no way to really reliably figure out when enough is enough. So what do you use to get consistently professional indentions in your sheaths and other leather working projects?

you could build a couple of spacers for your 20t, you wouldn't need a gauge then.

[fredk]

With the Tandy press I can screw the end of the ram up or down so I bring the ram down to the leather and adjust it so that the stamp is just pressed into the leather by a few millimetres. I also use various thickness of delrin sheet as a base

[Chris623]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

you could build a couple of spacers for your 20t, you wouldn't need a gauge then.

Yes, I could, Chuck............but it would be hard to maintain precision/repeatability.

Fred, I'd love to have that Tandy press, but can't afford it.  If I could afford that, I could buy several of the Arbor Presses that are on the used market in my area.

[toxo]

It's not a precise science and it depends a lot on your mark. Some are sharper than others . I would imagine you'll soon get a feel for the right pressure with the press you have or get a cheap arbor press. Lots of options that way. I often use a long bar with mine rather than lean on it. If I wanted to get cranky I could work something out but if you just sink the mark to the level of the base it'll be fine. Different leather will have a different density anyway.

[Chris623]

Thanks, toxo.

[Alaisiagae]

@fredk Which Tandy press, the red one or the grey one? I have a half ton arbor press, but I can't get it to do deep impressions, no matter how hard I push the lever. I know the Tandy presses sometimes go on sale (e.g. Black Friday), so I'm wondering if it's worth it.

[Chris623]

In talking with some leather workers, they are saying a typical maker's mark would need at least a 1 1/2 Ton arbor press.   I don't know anything about Tandy's presses.

[baroness]

It also depends on the leathers you're marking, veg tan or chrome. 

I know it would need testing to get a feel for it, but I've seen some will heat it over an alcohol lamp or such before pressing it into chrome tan leather. Veg tan, can case the leather first to make it more  easily impressionable.

[Chris623]

The only material I plan (at this stage) to be using is Veg tan.  My primary focus is knife sheaths for my custom knives.

[fredk]

18 hours ago, Alaisiagae said:

 Which Tandy press, the red one or the grey one?

The grey one; https://tandyleather.world/products/craftool-pro-hand-press?_pos=3&_sid=2f2862f43&_ss=r 

I preferred the grey one as I bought the adaptors for the 3D/2D stamps for it  https://tandyleather.world/products/press-dies-for-hand-press?pr_prod_strat=copurchase&pr_rec_pid=4602824392839&pr_ref_pid=4602666549383&pr_seq=uniform

18 hours ago, Alaisiagae said:

 I have a half ton arbor press, but I can't get it to do deep impressions, no matter how hard I push the lever. 

Not many people do this; ~~ its not just about pressing the stamp, the leather needs to be cased just about right, and leave the pressure on for about 20 seconds or more

 

On 10/7/2020 at 2:06 PM, Chris623 said:

 I'd love to have that Tandy press, but can't afford it.  If I could afford that, I could buy several of the Arbor Presses that are on the used market in my area.

Would you believe that no place in my country had an arbor press of any size. Only one was willing to import one. It was large and was 12T pressure and was going to cost around £600. Tandy had theirs on sale so I got it for about £180

 

18 hours ago, Chris623 said:

In talking with some leather workers, they are saying a typical maker's mark would need at least a 1 1/2 Ton arbor press.   I don't know anything about Tandy's presses.

Nonsense. The Tandy is 1.25 T and if I don't carefully adjust its depth to press I can, and have, punched a stamp right through 3mm thick l leather. Just the other night I tested a self-made resin stamp on 2mm leather. I didn't use the press nor a hammer, I just pressed it down hard on the cased leather and held it there for about 20 seconds. I got a very decent test stamping, not great but passable

[Chris623]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

Nonsense. The Tandy is 1.25 T and if I don't carefully adjust its depth to press I can, and have, punched a stamp right through 3mm thick l leather. Just the other night I tested a self-made resin stamp on 2mm leather. I didn't use the press nor a hammer, I just pressed it down hard on the cased leather and held it there for about 20 seconds. I got a very decent test stamping, not great but passable

I had no idea the Gray Tandy press had that much compression power.  Still, it's about 7 times what I can afford right now.  I've decided to just use my 20 Ton hydraulic press.  I'll need to "accurize" it some so the beam that travels up and down doesn't have any slop.  Other than that, I think it will do quite nicely.

I do find your comment about having to "hold it there for about 20 seconds" interesting.  When we use a stamp on leather............any of the hand-held impression stamps...........it is only pressed into the leather the amount of time the hammer is hitting it.  Why would a maker's mark have to be held under pressure for 20 seconds?

[fredk]

10 minutes ago, Chris623 said:

I do find your comment about having to "hold it there for about 20 seconds" interesting.  When we use a stamp on leather............any of the hand-held impression stamps...........it is only pressed into the leather the amount of time the hammer is hitting it.  Why would a maker's mark have to be held under pressure for 20 seconds?

All stamping should take time.

When you use a bar and hammer, walk the the stamp. 1st hit, centre to locate it, then tip to top left, hit again, tip to top right, hit, tip to bottom right, hit. tip to bottom left, hit. Finish with another centred hit. All this takes more than 20 seconds. The time is needed for the leather fibres to become fully compressed and retain that compression. If you just press down briefly and release the fibres can reshape themselves a bit after release of the pressure on them

Try it this way and you'll find you get sharper more permanent impressions

[Chris623]

I use the "four points of the compass" method, much as you recommend.  Just didn't think of it as the same as 20 seconds under constant pressure.

[Northmount]

1 ton arbor press works for me.  Also a dead blow hammer works.  A regular mallet type hammer often bounces so you can get a ghost image due to the bounce.  Dead blow hammer eliminates that.

Tom

 

[Chris623]

Thanks, Tom.  I had already figured on using a dead-blow hammer if hand holding the die.  Just placed and order for my maker's mark.  Their website mentioned they are about 3 weeks behind due to the Pandemic, so I guess I'll have to be patient.