- Joined
- Feb 28, 2009
- Messages
- 1,050
On Monday I received my new name and material stamps from Evers and I couldn't wait to try them out. I finally got to do so yesterday and rather than follow the good advice I've seen here before (to try them out on a scrap piece of steel), I went straight to a desk knife I've been working on and calamity ensued.
Rather than use a hammer, I used a small hydraulic press. It has a force gage that shows up to 10,000 lbs. I wasn't sure what force would be required, so I figured I'd just eyeball it. Unfortunately, at 2,000 lbs, I heard a ping. In retrospect, 1,000 lbs would probably have been sufficient.
First off, I think the stamps themselves are superb. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, especially given the length of my last name and the space I asked them to stay within. I ordered them on 12/14 and received them 12/27. Not bad considering we had Christmas in the middle.
Back to the situation at hand, I think there were a couple of problems here. The first and most obvious is using too much pressure, I think. Secondly, I think I placed my name stamp, which I stamped first, too close to the choil. Without using too much pressure though, I don't think that would have been anything more than a cosmetic issue. Note that the choil looks kind of jagged in the pictures. There was actually a nice radius that the photos didn't capture. The plunge was a straight line, but the crack opening up distorted that.
Lastly, I didn't use the best support for the blade. If you look closely at the second picture (showing the material stamp), you can see some surface irregularities directly above the stamp. These were from using an imperfect support plate that had a spotty surface. Again, not sure how much of an issue this would have been without using too much pressure.
The saddest part is that with the press, I could have stopped at any time to survey progress. Instead, I relied upon my perspective of how far the stamp was pressing into the blade. Bad idea obviously. Again, in retrospect I think that the stamp doesn't need to press far into the blade in order to make a good mark. In fact, I think it sort of blurred the stamp of my name because I tried to press too far. The 'CPM154' is much crisper in my opinion.
So, lessons learned here are to test on a scrap piece of metal first, not use too much pressure, place your stamp an appropriate distance from anything that could result in a stress concentration during stamping and to use a good support with a smooth face.
These are simply my observations as a newb, so if I'm off base, I'd like to hear from you seasoned stamping pros out there. Fortunately, my stamps were not damaged during this exercise and I already have another pair of desk knives in process. This time around, I think I'll stamp them before I spend a couple hours hand sanding the blades (this one looks like crap because I quickly hit the bevels with some 120 grit to get rid of the light discoloration after HT). I went ahead and heat treated this one to use as a desk knife myself. It will serve as a reminder of all the lessons learned above and any more I learn as a result of this thread.
Rather than use a hammer, I used a small hydraulic press. It has a force gage that shows up to 10,000 lbs. I wasn't sure what force would be required, so I figured I'd just eyeball it. Unfortunately, at 2,000 lbs, I heard a ping. In retrospect, 1,000 lbs would probably have been sufficient.
First off, I think the stamps themselves are superb. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, especially given the length of my last name and the space I asked them to stay within. I ordered them on 12/14 and received them 12/27. Not bad considering we had Christmas in the middle.
Back to the situation at hand, I think there were a couple of problems here. The first and most obvious is using too much pressure, I think. Secondly, I think I placed my name stamp, which I stamped first, too close to the choil. Without using too much pressure though, I don't think that would have been anything more than a cosmetic issue. Note that the choil looks kind of jagged in the pictures. There was actually a nice radius that the photos didn't capture. The plunge was a straight line, but the crack opening up distorted that.
Lastly, I didn't use the best support for the blade. If you look closely at the second picture (showing the material stamp), you can see some surface irregularities directly above the stamp. These were from using an imperfect support plate that had a spotty surface. Again, not sure how much of an issue this would have been without using too much pressure.
The saddest part is that with the press, I could have stopped at any time to survey progress. Instead, I relied upon my perspective of how far the stamp was pressing into the blade. Bad idea obviously. Again, in retrospect I think that the stamp doesn't need to press far into the blade in order to make a good mark. In fact, I think it sort of blurred the stamp of my name because I tried to press too far. The 'CPM154' is much crisper in my opinion.
So, lessons learned here are to test on a scrap piece of metal first, not use too much pressure, place your stamp an appropriate distance from anything that could result in a stress concentration during stamping and to use a good support with a smooth face.
These are simply my observations as a newb, so if I'm off base, I'd like to hear from you seasoned stamping pros out there. Fortunately, my stamps were not damaged during this exercise and I already have another pair of desk knives in process. This time around, I think I'll stamp them before I spend a couple hours hand sanding the blades (this one looks like crap because I quickly hit the bevels with some 120 grit to get rid of the light discoloration after HT). I went ahead and heat treated this one to use as a desk knife myself. It will serve as a reminder of all the lessons learned above and any more I learn as a result of this thread.
