Name stamps

[Bod]

When buying old tools with wooden parts, it is difficult to find anything without a previous owners name stamped on.
Now are these stamps still available, and if so where from?

Bod

 

[marcros]

Chalco stamp and die. Do a search on here for some examples.

 

[tobytools]

Google: metal name stamps
It's all there, depending in what you want they can be quite expensive.

TT

 

[Bod]

Thanks.
I should have thought of "Googling" I see what you mean by expensive, no wonder its not seen today!
Its only about 10% cheaper to have just initals, rather than full name.

Bod

 

[Lawrence Hill]

I got mine from Eyre & Baxter in Sheffield - cost about £8 in 1979. The tradition was always to stamp next to the previous owners name but not over it to obliterate the old marks. I think I have one or two older moulding planes which show at least four stamps...

There are two sorts of relief angle on the letters - one intended for stamping metal, the other for wood. Worthwhile checking before placing an order. The metal stamp usually works pretty well on timber too. Cramping a straight edge adjacent is a good precaution where the tool profile allows, to align the stamp as any 'bounce' or skewing looks horrible and is almost impossible to correct once done. (hammer)

I have normally removed, stamped, then replaced plane totes on LN planes etc which is easy to do and assures a neat impression.

I do like the idea that you can buy a tool which will work well for more than one lifetime as proved by the catalogue of former owners names.

Regards

Lawrence

 

[bugbear]

In the 1938 Marples catalogue posted by Gary Roberts/Andrew Tuckwell 1/4" lettter stamps for wood are 10½d per letter, so "F. J. Smith" would be 73½d (6/1½).

Around £17 in today's money.

BugBear

 

[Corneel]

Mine arrived yesterday from Chalco. Very nice! Cost me 60 pounds including tax and shipping.

 

[bugbear]

Mine arrived yesterday from Chalco. Very nice! Cost me 60 pounds including tax and shipping.

Photos or it didn't happen.

BugBear

 

[marcros]

Mine arrived yesterday from Chalco. Very nice! Cost me 60 pounds including tax and shipping.

Let's see it in action then, or at least the results of it.

There is an interesting little blog post here that you might like to look at, relevant to stamping.

http://woodbloker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/1 ... -what.html

 

[Corneel]

Thanks for the link! In wood it isn't too difficult, but I also want to mark brass, which is quite another thing!

I'll make a picture tonight.

 

[ColeyS1]

There is an interesting little blog post here that you might like to look at, relevant to stamping.

http://woodbloker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/1 ... -what.html

That's such a neat idea. Cheers for posting the link
Coley

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Cheshirechappie]

There's nothing that quite matches a personalised name stamp, but it occurred to me that an alternative is to use Engineer's Marking Stamps, which are available in both numbers and letters in quite a range of sizes. Examples would be these from Smith Francis Tools - http://www.smithfrancistools.co.uk/marking.htm - which can be bought through good engineer's suppliers, and of course budget examples of far eastern manufacture will be available through the likes of Ebay and Amazon. Search for 'letter stamps' and 'number stamps'.

Using them does need a little bit of practice to get a good result, since something like an 'm' will need a bit more tap than an 'i' to give the same depth of impression. Setting them against a straightedge of about 1/2" thickness or so helps to get the impressions neatly aligned.

One advantage is that they'll mark soft steels, brass and wood with equal ease. Don't hit so hard when marking wood, though.

 

[bugbear]

There's nothing that quite matches a personalised name stamp, but it occurred to me that an alternative is to use Engineer's Marking Stamps, which are available in both numbers and letters in quite a range of sizes. Examples would be these from Smith Francis Tools - http://www.smithfrancistools.co.uk/marking.htm - which can be bought through good engineer's suppliers, and of course budget examples of far eastern manufacture will be available through the likes of Ebay and Amazon. Search for 'letter stamps' and 'number stamps'.

Using them does need a little bit of practice to get a good result, since something like an 'm' will need a bit more tap than an 'i' to give the same depth of impression. Setting them against a straightedge of about 1/2" thickness or so helps to get the impressions neatly aligned.

One advantage is that they'll mark soft steels, brass and wood with equal ease. Don't hit so hard when marking wood, though.

I've never seen a neat job done with separate punches. Even if the individual letters are cleanly struck, the spacing and/or alignment is normally ugly.

I'd be more than happy to see a counter example though.

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

Back in 2008, I made a little shoulder plane.

I used engineer's punches to mark it with my initials and the date. As has been said, you only get one chance to get it right. I did not devise a jig (repeating the zeroes in the date would have been challenging) and you can see that I didn't manage to hit consistent depth.

Being kind to myself, I'd say the marks were on a par with the rest of the tool - not pretty or well finished, but functional, just about.

 

[tobytools]

Back in 2008, I made a little shoulder plane.

I used engineer's punches to mark it with my initials and the date. As has been said, you only get one chance to get it right. I did not devise a jig (repeating the zeroes in the date would have been challenging) and you can see that I didn't manage to hit consistent depth.

Being kind to myself, I'd say the marks were on a par with the rest of the tool - not pretty or well finished, but functional, just about.

Could you email me some pics of the planes you have made please, I'm interested
[email protected]

Cheers
TT

 

[Corneel]

My stamp in brass and in wood. It is very small as you can see. It is blatantly copied from the style of the 17th century Dutch planemakers.