Custom Leather Stamps

[gelandangan]

Attention, my offer for the low priced custom leather stamps are limited to active members with 30 or more posts.
If you wish to purchase a stamp without being an active contributing member, simply order them through Howling Dingo's store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/HowlingDingo

The idea of this discount is to help my mates in BushcraftOz to pimp up their leather works.
By joining just to save a few dollars you are taking up precious bandwidth of the forum and I do not think it is right.




Gday

Since I wrote on my weekend project post that I would make custom leather stamps for a trade, I was asked by a few for prices to make theirs.
And rather than repeating myself too often, I will describe them here.

First of all, this is a hobby, I am not doing this for a living, nor am I wishing to be rich out of this.
Having got that out of the way, lets talk about Market Value.

Tandy Leather have two similar products, a nylon type that cost about $165 for up to 32 x 22mm and a mixed nylon and pot metal type that costs $249 for up to 32 x 32mm
I believe Birdsall sells them at about the same price.
Then. there is a mob in USA called LaserGiftCreations that would make nylon stamps from about US$50
Of course there is Leprevo from UK that etches magnesium stamps (read Blake's review on them), that seems to be very reasonable in price for a large stamp.

Now onto my prices
I guess, I would price my stamps for the member of this forum as follows:
For designs up to 12mm diameter, it would be $25.00
For designs up to 25mm x 25mm square, it would be $50.00

Due to increases in cost, I am planning to increase my price on the 1st of August 2013.
Any order finalized before this date will be at the old price.

On 1st of August 2013,
12mm diameter stamps will be $35.00
25mm x 25mm stamps will be $65.00

Postage price is still the same $7.50 via registered post to anywhere in Australia.

Although it is higher price, I believe they are still much cheaper than elsewhere.

I think this is quite reasonable because I made my stamps out of 6061 Aluminum, in itself, this is a bit more durable than nylon, pot metal (zinc alloy) and to a point magnesium.
The depth of relief I would cut the design to is 1mm deep, deeper relief can be done depending on the design.

I would make most of the larger stamps on 6mm thick stock, and for stamps that fits within 12mm diameter circle, I would made them out of 12mm solid rods cut to about 50mm lengths.
The stamp I use on my leather sheath is made with the 12mm rod.
If you have larger designs, I would give you a quote if you can send me the image and final sizes required.
My machine can work up to 90mm x 180mm size.

You should send a 300dpi JPG image of your design to me at gelandangan(AT)yahoo(DOT)com , with a note of what final size you wish the stamp to be.
I then create a mock up 3D image of the stamp so you could "see" how it would look like before we cut it.
If everything is good, then I would cut the stamp, make a test impression and send the stamp and test impression to you within a week if not faster.


Now, I DO NOT WANT YOUR MONEY!!
You can either send me a trade item to the value of (show me what you got) or buy me something from BushcraftOz store up to the value of (item to be agreed on).

Example of a 12mm stamp

Example of a 25mm stamp

How to use the stamp? (Thank you silverback)

1. Lightly wet the leather until it just darkens a bit,
2. wait till it comes back to its original colour (dried out),
3. as soon as it change to its original color, hit (or clamp on) it with the stamp.

 

[Wildfire]

Awesome Thanks for the info Mate! Definately got me thinking.

 

[gelandangan]

I need to clear a point.

A good image for the stamp should be done in line art, NOT A PHOTOGRAPH of something.
If you can only send a photograph, please send ONLY the image you wish to be made, no background, and the image MUST be sharp and clean.
You would need to scale the image and see if the small stamp can provide the details you are looking for.


Otherwise *I would not be able to extract the vector and create the stamp.

For instance,
====================================================================
This is a good image for a stamp

====================================================================

This is an Ok image, but the details around the head will be lost in the stamping
For these type of images, you would need to send an image of at least 1024 x 720 pixel (the FULL size of a computer screen)*

====================================================================

This image cannot be used to make stamps because all details will definitely be gone.

====================================================================

 

[gelandangan]

Here is an example for a stamp I made for Blake.

here is the image I got, notice that the lines are clean and the contrast between black and white is good


===========================
Here is the mockup stamp I calculated


===========================
Here is the finished stamp with the trial image stamped on a piece of leather
The image on the stamp is a MIRROR image.

 

[Timmy]

That's fantastic mate. All I need now is a good design.

 

[BjornJ]

Hi G,
that looks awesome!

How do you actually stamp it on the leather? Is it enough to whack it with a hammer, or do you need to use a big press?
I read Blake's article about using a big press, but hopefully that is not necessary for these smaller diameter stamps?

thanks
Bjorn

 

[gelandangan]

Hi G,
that looks awesome!

How do you actually stamp it on the leather? Is it enough to whack it with a hammer, or do you need to use a big press?
I read Blake's article about using a big press, but hopefully that is not necessary for these smaller diameter stamps?

thanks
Bjorn

Hi Bjorn, thanks !

The small 12mm stamps can be whacked with a hammer,
With the larger stamps, I actually use a multigrip to squeeze the stamp to the leather.
Tandy Leather tutorials show that they are whacked multiple times to the leather until the imprint is nice and even.
I guess with care, you can use a vise to do the squeezing as well.

 

[gelandangan]

Orders cut today.

========================================

Done, tested and posted.. Just in time for my coffee break.
Thank you gtac

 

[auscraft]

Very nice stamps and thankyou for the generous offer.

 

[gelandangan]

Done another one.
Thank you Silverback

 

[Timmy]

Good design. Nice stamp.

 

[gelandangan]

Last one for the day

 

[Howling Dingo]

Wow..That's fantastic mate!!

 

[gelandangan]

Thank Al.
Want one ?

 

[gelandangan]

Corin's done!
I also made a "negative" imprint, it come out pretty good as well,
the only thing is that it would need a stronger press to imprint it deeper on to the leather.

 

[Blake]

Another thumbs up for Glendangan. Im really happy with my stamp. He saved my bacon after I did a typo on one I got made elsewhere :_(D): Doh!

Bjorn. You only need a really press for a stamp I would say larger than maybe 4-5cm. You can get away with a vice, or hammer for smaller. If you lightly wet the leather too this will help. The press just makes it really easy and consistent, especially with larger stamps. It also matters how much surface area the design has. I.e looking above the negative Niroc knives logo is the same size but would be much harder to get the same depth imprint if that makes sense.

Here is the stamp Glendangan made for me. This was just a quick 5 sec with the 2 ton press and you can see its a large stamp with a large surface area because of the bird. A bit of water and more effort it would go deeper.

 

[gelandangan]

Graybear's done

 

[graybear]

Weeeee!!!! Can't wait to use it!!

 

[silverback]

Heres a hint for those non leather guys,when you use your stamp,lightly wet the leather until it just darkens abit then wait till it nearly comes back to its original colour then hit it with the stamp,you should then get that nice dark brown burnish colour in your impression.

 

[Howling Dingo]

Thank Al.
Want one ?

Yes.....:non sono stato io: