OUCH! ...a whine

jhiggins

jhiggins

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Messages
3,258
Crap-slappin' Fargle-blasterizing sewage-gargler! I dropped my tang stamp on the cold hard concrete floor of my shop and the H got flattened. I paid $70 for that stamp from Harpers a few years ago. I felt rudely-violated in the fecal-discharge orifice at the price. So today I call out there and they say it's going to be like $80... but there is a 5-6 week wait. I can't go that long without a stamp! I asked if there is a way to put a rush on it and the guy said yeah - $40 and he can have it done in two days. Now I am feeling like I just got unkindly selected for being an unwilling victim for some alien anal-probing. So we are up to $120 for a fargin chunk of 0-1.

So I decided to give Henry Evers a try. Nice folks there. It's all good. They can do the font I need and it'll happen within a week... for $140. Tired and weary from the rectal-battering I've received thusly, I consented. Now I feel like a herd of bison have trompled their way down my Hershey Highway, leaving nothing but a huge gaping mudhole in what was once my wallet-transportation station.

*sigh*

Mondays sux. :D
 
Danbo... Me no likey the etching thingy. :D I got a an etcher. It works great. I just don't like it.

Mike... LUBE? I'm retired Air Force. I'm used to no lube. :eek: Gimme some now, and I'll start getting spoiled. ;)
 
These i did with a home made etcher, salt water and home developed stencils, etcher and stencil all probably under $35 or so:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/terry_dodson/album?.dir=7941
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/terry_dodson/album?.dir=889b

blade steel is 1080. I used regular stencil material from these folks:
http://www.photoez.us/
You just print what you want as dark as you can, expose to UV light or the sun, develop in water, re-expose to the UV light, then they are ready to use about 20 minutes from start to finish. They also now have Hi-Res stencils which is what i will get next time for finer lettering.
 
Trick said:
I have been shopping around for a stamp and the prices are more than I want/have extra to spend right now. I still haven't done a thing with this bowie because I want to mark it before heat treat. I hear y'all say an etcher will go as deep as a stamp but I haven't seen an etch yet on a used knife that didn't look like crap if you could even still see it at all. I just really don't want to go that route if I don't have to. So....

Would it be possible to make our own mark that looks half way decent? I know a couple knifemakers that do their own but their initials are engraved into the stamp leaving them raised on the knife. I don't really want that.

If so, could an hss toolbit be used? I have a huge toolbit that I know I will never have a lathe big enough to use it. But I wouldn't know how to treat it afterwards even if I did get something that looked decent on it.

Jeff, you would know, would it be worth our time to contact diemakers and ask prices?
Click to expand...

Hey Trick, the guys over at Primal Fires have a way with makers marks, and a tutorial on how to make your own. My only problem with that is A) coming up with a design that hasn't already been thought of, and B0 the fact that everything you stamp with it will look neo-tribal. Now mind you - I've nothgin against the NT boys, but I don't make NT blades.

Harper's makes a decent stamp, but I'll be danged if they don't need to get the lead out and cut their lead time down a couple weeks. Five or six weeks is way too long to make a solo knifemaker wait for his stamp, especially in my case. You woudl have thought they woudl have rushed me out a stamp right away. This is why I gave the Henry Evers company my biz. Yeah, I paid a little more, but Everstamps have the best rep out there. I'll bet if I dropped one of those from 36" like I did the Harper stamp, I'd still be using it.

Another difference between the two: Harper's uses EDM to make thier stamps, Evers uses pantograph mills. The work is much stronger in the end using a mill than burning it in with a wire, such as the case with EDM machines. They both use o-1 as a bar stock, and I think the EDM stamps suffer from a little carbon loss, hence a softer product. Also, they (Harper) are tempering to 59RC an Evers is like 60-61. Also Henry Evers Comapany has been doing this over 100 years. That should say a lot.

These are the big two. I am sure there are others out there. If you find a good one, let us know. I'm thinking of getting a couple more stamps in differing fonts now. One for Asian-style blades, one for European/Celtic blades, etc. It'd lood kind of weird to put my last name in Olde English on a tanto, right?

Oh and Danbo... I may have been short with you about the etcher. I didn't mean to be, bro. I just don't like the look.
 
IF you kept your tang stamp IN your mudhole in the first place none of this would've happened.
 
jhiggins said:
I dropped my tang stamp on the cold hard concrete floor of my shop and the H got flattened.
Click to expand...
Just say you are from England. They don't pronounce leading "H" sounds on their words anyway. ;) Pleased to meet you, Mr 'iggins.
 
jhiggins said:
Another difference between the two: Harper's uses EDM to make thier stamps, Evers uses pantograph mills. The work is much stronger in the end using a mill than burning it in with a wire, such as the case with EDM machines. They both use o-1 as a bar stock, and I think the EDM stamps suffer from a little carbon loss, hence a softer product.
Click to expand...

With EDM, there is a recast layer that might have a little decarb, but it wouldn't be more than a few .0001 of an inch. More than likely, it was made with a plunge or sinker edm. With wire, it has to pass through the part. Wire edm is similar to a bandsaw, the blade/wire has to go through the piece. Sinker or plunge edm is similar to a router, it can make cavities that don't have to break through.

Truthfully, the price sounds about right. I work in the sinker room of an machine shop. Some of the work we do racks up quite a bill for the end user.

Jamie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top