A set of numbers from 18th.C. tobacco boxes I made

[george wilson]

I was looking at several smallish 18th.C. brass tobacco boxes,pocket size,that we have in collections. Decided to copy the numbers for general use. Making a set of numbers isn't as much trouble as making a letter set!

Some of these numbers have different forms. I made 2 seven's,one a long seven,2 number 6's(or 9's), one long one. Two number 4's. The bad looking one is a careful copy of an earlier #4 that one tobacco tin had. Could be a long way before the 18th.C.. It is almost a + sign. The 4 was a + sign sometimes in the 1400's.

The "thicks and thins" on the number 8 is authentic. The level of "crudeness" is authentic,though you don't see it much in true life size.

These are 1/8" high,except for the longer ones. They are made of 1/4" square W1 steel. I have struck many a number with them on metal. No chips yet. If any,like the "5" look chipped,it's a bit of dust(trash).

These are strictly filed and chiseled out by hand. I have no fancy way to do it. If I did,they wouldn't have the handmade look about them,which the original stamps had. I seek that. It makes my tool productions look more authentic.

It would be just terrible to make a nice tool,and then stamp them with modern trashy Gothic stamps. I make a lot of effort to find old letter and number stamp sets at flea markets. They are getting very hard to find anymore. I've been looking for some for a friend. Though I have everything in stamps by now,I still like to make them,and make special ones like these,that you aren't going to find. also make special sets like the
Medieval letter set,which just isn't available anyway. I posted them a few weeks ago here.

[John Coloccia]

Could you give an idea of the kinds of tools and techniques you use to do this? I can easily see how you waste the bulk of the material with files and chisels, but how do you get in and get the corners and fine details sharp and deep?

[george wilson]

Just filed as possible to get to. Chiseled out on the interior surfaces with small die maker's type chisels.

[David Weaver]

Just filed as possible to get to. Chiseled out on the interior surfaces with small die maker's type chisels.

I think these are foreign to us, but i'm inclined to try to learn how to do this to get a maker's stamp in the hope that at some point, I will make something I would put a stamp on and not hide from it.

[george wilson]

Grobet still offers die maker's chisels. I just make my own. Started out making them out of the oldest triangular files I could find. Then,I ordered some annealed HSS,and forged them at only red heat,hammering below black some to pack it. This is not the usual way to harden HSS,but it made the chisels very hard,and a LOT tougher than HSS normally is.

You could make serviceable chisels out of 01 or W1,just sharpen them more often. I could post pictures of them,but they are pretty rough(except for their tips) and ready.

[David Weaver]

Just air hardening on the HSS?

When you are chiseling these, material is actually coming out of them? or are you moving the metal downward. I'm assuming the former to avoid deformation of what you've already chiseled?

[george wilson]

HSS is air hardening. It's supposed to be heated in a gas filled furnace to over 2000º degrees. I can't recall the exact temp as I never harden it,not do I have an inert gas furnace.

Even at just red hot,I still got a soft skin,but only a little. I ground it off for the simple chisels.

Yes,I am chiseling metal away,not punching it down,though you can do that. I used counter punches on my medieval stamp set,because the interior shapes were all nearly the same. Type makers use counter punches. If you drilled a small hole in the area you wanted to counter punch,it would give the metal some lace to go,and make a deeper counter punch possible.

[harry strasil]

David, I like Mr. Wilson mark the tools I make for myself so they will not someday be peddled as real antiques. A branding iron is an alternative to a stamp for woodwork.

Personalized branding irons are commercially available. I use a small branding iron I made of pieces formed by sawing, filing and grinding in the shape of a small bow saw, similar in shape to my shop made walnut coping saw and tack welding it together with my wire feed welder.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/brandingiron003.jpg

I polished the surface a bit so it will show up in this photo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/brandingiron001.jpg

It has a short small rod handle as I heat it with a small Mapp gas or propane hand held torch.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/brandingiron002.jpg

[george wilson]

I posted pictures a few weeks ago of spokeshaves that had my little brand on an ivory shield. The chisel handles were branded,too,but my photos were very fuzzy.

[David Weaver]

I like it, Harry.

When I looked at commercial stamps, it wasn't an issue to get the letters I wanted in my stamp, but getting them oriented the way I wanted and having them look the way I wanted looked like it was going to be very hard to figure out and very expensive if I could figure it out.

If they were still $75, as george mentions, I'd have no problem. To get as many letters as I want, though, looks like $200 or so from what I've seen, and the fonts are very modern. I would imagine I could get different if I did some digging, but that's a lot of cake for 7 or 8 letters.

[george wilson]

Whose fonts are modern? Buckeye(NOT Buckhorn!!.Was tired last night). will do whatever you want. I use Bookman font.

[george wilson]

The name stamps are charged for by the number of letters. Just google Buckeye engraving and ask the guy. Tell him I sent you. It won't help you a bit on price!!! He will remember me,though. We bought quite a few stamps from him,especially for the folding rules.