steel letter stamp guide?

[BLADECARVER]

i thought at one time i seen a guide used for stamping letters and such. the guide is used to keep your stampings straight an narrow? can anyone point me in the right direction? thanks

 

[RUJOCO]

Henry Evers has it on their website. Try henryevers.com (?)

 

[Chris Meyer]

The consensus of stampers seems to be that using a hydraulic jack with your stamp is the way to go. Evers stamp holder is quite expensive and reportedly did not work all that well for blades. Kevin Cashen and someone else posted images of press frames that the use to stamp their blades.

This is Kevin's frame.

The other poster had an even fancier yellow painted one, but I can't recall where it's posted. Try searching for "stamp press".

 

[gixxer]

I use an arbor press and one of these. It's a 1/2" drive socket that fits over the ram on the arbor press. Isnt perfect, but it is fairly easy to get it lined up. I hold steady pressure on the handle, and hit the top of the ram with a dead weight hammer a couple times. if you do not keep the steady pressure, the stamp jumps. Ask me how I know...

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Gixxer posted that photo a whole back and it got me thinking. The times when I have some problems stamping is when the ricasso is tapered. The stamp won't strike right. I took the plate from my arbor press and ground a slight angle to two of the lobes sticking out on the foot plate. It gives me two slightly different angles to hold the blade so the surface at the stamp is parallel to the stamp. It works perfect.

I have a pneumatic bottle jack (air powered with a foot switch) that I plan on using to create a setup with which I can position the base plate at any angle I need to get the marking surface parallel to the stamp. It will look somewhat like Chris' unit, but instead of a plain block on the ram,the top of the ram will be fitted with a table that can be tilted a little bit to get the necessary alignment. It will be done by making two round cam plates from 1/4" steel, with a 7.5 degree angle on one surface of each. They will bolt on the ram top where the current top is bolted now ( with the angled surfaces together). By rotating the plates, the surface will change its angle anywhere between 15 degrees to flat. At all times the plates will be solid against the ram, so there will be no possibility of the blade shifting.
Stacy

 

[Chris Meyer]

I found a picture of the yellow painted stamp press I mentioned earlier. I'll post it below.

Please note that I did not make, nor do I own, either of the stamp press I posted pictures of. Kevin Cashen made the red one. I don't recall who made the yellow one, and I can't find the thread it was on. If someone remembers who made the yellow press, please let us know so that I can give credit where credit is due. Thanks.