- Design measures: 11.5mm wide by 3.5mm high.
- Made from 1/2" square heat-treated tool steel.
- Arrive coated in oil to prevent rusting.
- Wipe oil away with paper towel. Do not use water.
- Rated to use on all soft metals and stainless steel (if you are a newbie, "rated" means it's specifically rated yes/good/go for it).
- Knives are hardened steel and none of our stamps should be used on knife blades.
- Just because a stamp "can" stamp in stainless, doesn't mean it will be easy. We do not recommend this metal for beginners. Stainless steel is very difficult to stamp on because it is such a hard metal. The larger and/or more intricate the design, the harder it will be to impress into stainless. Tape your blank to your bench block and consider using a 2 lb hammer.
- We highly recommend buying a few stainless steel blanks to use as practice pieces.
WAIT, WHAT? Haven't you always said to not use these stamps on stainless?
The short answer - Yes, you are correct. Our rule has been to keep our stamps off of all stainless but we have now realized that is too general. Not all stainless is created equal and with the now widely available jewelry-grade stainless blanks (most often grade 304, 316 or 430), we have discovered that our stamps hold up great on non-hardened stainless (all the stainless blanks we sell).
The long answer - The rule to keep our stamps off stainless came from years ago when we really couldn't tell what kind of stainless people were stamping on but often it was non-jewelry items that were too hard and could damage the stamps. Now that we carry blanks made mostly for jewelry intention (and some pet tags) we decided to reevaluate and take a closer look and challenge our rule. After extensive research and testing of both our tools and stainless blanks (both in-house and sending them out to machine shops to be tested), the results are in....and we can say with total confidence that our stamps will hold up on non-hardened stainless. I (Lisa) have personally tested many of our Beaducation Original design stamps and letter sets and I've had a handful of customers test them as well (testing with 100+ impressions). We have found that they can impress into stainless steel quite well AND they hold up. For example, I stamped one of our script letters 700 times into a few of our stainless blanks (and on a spoon!). The stamp and its impression still look great. That being said, if you are wondering how long they will last if mainly being used in stainless, we really have no way of accurately answering that. There are so many factors involved (what exactly you are stamping, the amount of detail in the design, overall stamp size, what size hammer you use, etc.) but based on our testing, it will last a long time. :)
The Advantage Series and Stamp Yours stamps will last even longer. They are very sharp faced and made to endure high volume stamping in stainless (but again, don't stamp on hardened knife blades).
Design Stamps are a bit tricky. I highly recommend you practice on some cheap metal before diving into your Sterling Silver or Gold Filled. Click here to purchase a piece of sheet to practice on.
For best results with Design Stamps, make sure there is NO padding under your Bench Block with the exception of a Sandbag, make sure you are working on a stable table, and use a hammer which weighs at least 16 ounces. We recommed a Brass Head Mallet. Feel free to hit the stamp more than once, but hold the stamp steady, making sure you don't shift at all between hits. The more confident you are with the hammer and the strength behind it, the better your impression will be.
Click the TILT & TAP STAMPING METHOD button above for more tips on working with our Design Stamps.
