Reverse letter stamps

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Hey everyone,
Just looking at the blueprint about making touchmarks and was wondering where a person could find reversed letter stamps so that when the touchmark is stamped, the letters would be facing the correct way. Any ideas?? A good old google search didn't turn up much at all.
-Aaron @ The SCF

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

And as soon as I hit post, it dawned on me to search "REVERSED STEEL stamps" instead of "REVERSE LETTER stamps".....the above term brings up quite a bit off of google
-Aaron @ the SCF

[bruce wilcock]

i have a set 1/8 ins and numbers ,made in the USA, so it says on the box ,i got them in the UK ,so you should be able to get them ,for less money ,they work well ,the letter is on a flat background so they arnt as easy to position ,i ground the edge of to just leave the letter proud on the ones i needed and its a big improvment.

[lazyassforge]

Aaron, I bought mine from Mcmaster-Carr several years ago.
What letters are you needing, some are the same forward or backward. "A" ,"H", & "I" for instance.
Some can be turned upside down and become backwards "B", "C", & "D" for instance.
Hope this helps, Bill D.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Yes, the C would work backwards, but unfortunately, the S and the F won't (SCF) Have to order them through MMC. Suppose that'll give me a reason to go ahead and order a few other things i'd been needing while I'm at it....hm....those three letter stamps could get expensive:)
-Aaron @ the SCF

[bruce wilcock]

if you only need a C. S .and a F letter stamp all three have open ends and with a set of warding files ,wouldnt take long to make.

[ThomasPowers]

or a grinding point in a dremel and modify an "O" "8" and "B" note the last will need to be turned upside down as well.

Thomas

[Woody]

why not just buy a metal stamp kit, HF has them very reasonably priced and the letters will be facing the correct way when stamped.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Woody:
I'd be using the stamps to make a touchmark. I stamp the letter in the touchmark and then when the touchmark is stamped onto hot steel it would leave a raised "SCF" I need the reverse stamps for the whole mirror image thing. The idea right now is for the "SCF" to be inside either an anvil shape (yeh, i know, pretty generic) OR (if i get EXTREMELY creative and patient with a roto-tool) for the letters to be on the horizontal arm of a Celtic style cross... probably the first option:)
-Aaron @ the SCF

[Glenn]

Why not just use normal stamps to make your impression into a mother block. Then heat up your touchmark stock and transfer the impression to the touchmark stock (a daughter stamp). Heat treat the touchmark per the steel used. This way you cam make multiple touchmarks.

[Woody]

why not take an old chisel cut it off flat, anneal, draw the reverse pattern on it you want with a magic marker and it then cut the touchmark you want on the end of it with little chisels and a diamond burr on a dremel tool it's not that hard and will only take a couple hours at the most.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

While i do plan on using the roto-tool and various burrs (as well as a grinder and maybe even a belt sander) for shaping the stamp, I believe the letter stamps will produce a better looking letter than I could with a roto-tool.

Glenn: interesting thought on the negative type stamping, but if i understand your suggestion correctly it still wouldn't yield the raised letters I am shooting for. It might prove useful for other things though, kind of like drop forging without so much drop to it:).

Perhaps there was some misconception a while back. Apparently my sarcasm did not carry well into type. When i mentioned that the stamps could end up costing me a whole lot, I WAS NOT complaining about the price of the stamps (I think the total woulda been somewhere around 8 bucks or so plus shipping) but was rather commenting on a peculiar type of anomaly similar to going to Menard's for a carriage bolt and returning with two hammers, a new 12" square , a couple of 2x4's and a new mailbox. (This happened, but hey, everything I bought was on sale:) ). I had though of just roto-tooling the letters out, but thought maybe the letter stamps would be a better option (right tool for the job and all). If this misconception has caused any confusion let me know and I will be less jovial with future posts.

As for the chisels, I had some spring-steel u-bolts in mind that make great chisels (cold and hot) and should prove satisfactory for this also.

-Aaron @ the SCF

P.S. Woody: See http://www.iforgeiron.com/blueprints-100-200/bp0124-touchmarks.html . That's the one I saw which sparked my question which then made me realize I'd searched the wrong term, which then led to some interesting suggestions for creating the reversed letter stamps. So even though I'd answered my own question a bit ago and decided to order the letters i needed, the thread still led to some good ideas (I especially like Bruce's idea about grinding down the front corners to see where exactly the stamp is going).

[Glenn]

Start with some 1/2 x 3/4 solid bar stock. Get the end HOT and using normal letter stamps, impress the letters SCF (Sandy Creek Forge) into the end of the bar stock.

Now take impressed bar stock and grind away any excess you don't need, but leave a border to "hold" the letters. Now heat treat the bar stock and you will have a negative impressed image. (think letters sunk into the metal)

As a touch mark this will give you a sunken square (or what ever border you choose) with raised letters in the final image. See attached photo.

One reason this is not as common is that it takes some amount of energy to sink letters into a piece of steel. It takes MUCH MORE energy to both sink a large block of space into a piece of steel. It also takes much more energy to depress the steel while pushing some amount of steel upward to fill in the space where the letters are located.