Stamping or Engraving Stems?

sethile · Post by **sethile** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:35 am

Hello folks,
Is anyone stamping or engraving stems? I would like to add a distinguishing mark to my stems. I was thinking it might work to have a special stamp made with a trademark, stamping the stem like one does with a stummel, and then fill the stamping with a contrasting epoxy or acrylic and sand it flush before finishing out the stem. Anyone experimented around with any techniques and have any insight? Thought I might try it out on some scrap stem material with generic stamps first.

Engraving with a pentagram or some other machine might be another option, but that would be a lot more costly to set up. A third option would be to find or have an emblem made (sort of like the old GBDs were done).

geigerpipes · Post by **geigerpipes** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:55 am

I have never tried stamping the the stem and only engraved a few that method works great but like you say reqire an engraver..I guess stamping it would work if you keep it short like one letter or a symbol...but one problem that might arise is that the stamped area might rize up again from the heat caused by bending the stem as it is esentially just pressed...but you could ofcource bend prior to stamping...to fill it i whould use epoxy mixed with pigment...

Good Luck

Love
www.geigerpipes.com

RadDavis · Post by **RadDavis** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:34 pm

Some makers heat the stamp and melt the impression into the stem. Then they paint it with White Out and buff. The White out stays in the depression, giving a nice white letter, logo, etc. in the stem.

Rad

alexanderfrese · Post by **alexanderfrese** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 2:57 pm

That's the way I know the Peterson-P on thier stems when restoring estates. It looks like some hot stamping. I use enamel colour to restore these stamps to white, at least when they are deep enough after sanding.

marks · Post by **marks** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:02 pm

I stamp the stem on every pipe I put up for retail with my initials. I always stamp on the bottom of the stem, just next to the stem/shank junction. Since I decided not to do a stem logo, I thought this was the next best thing.

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:01 am

A&M Stamps

55 Windsor Avenue - Mineola, NY 11501

PH:516-741-6223 FAX: 516-248-4202

Paul Argendorf

Some pipe makers have Paul make their stamps. I had one recently made. It's designed to cut into the briar. You roll the stamp onto the wood. He charges in the range of $140 for a custom stamp.

sethile · Post by **sethile** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:45 am

I tried heating and stamping with generic stamps on some scrap stem stock, and it was a mess! Never got anything I'd even want to attmept to fill with pigmented epoxy. It might be the generic stamps (harbor frieght) are not even close to the right cut right for this (they're sure not for briar--I know that now too). I have a stummel stamp coming from Paul at A&M. Really looking forward to that! Perhaps when I get it I'll try it on some ebonite and see if that works any better than the generics did. If so, I can order one from Paul with the stem emblem I'm working on.

But... Has anyone tried the process know as hot stamping? Sounds like it might yeild the apperance I'm after. My guess is hot stamping is used by some of the larger makers on their stems. Anyone know? If so, anyone know of a way to do it on a small scale? Think it would work with just manually heating a stamp and use it in a modified drill press arrangement with the foil between the stamp and the stem? The problem would be to get the stamp heat controlled. That may have been my problem with my experiments with the generic stamps too. I'm also wondering how well the hot stamping will hold up... Like how I buffed the Autograph off my autograph durring my young and stupid days :naughty:

bvartist · Post by **bvartist** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:30 pm

sethile wrote: The problem would be to get the stamp heat controlled. That may have been my problem with my experiments with the generic stamps too.

I too found it difficult to control the heat with the single stamps. I recently made a pipe tamper out of ash in the shape of a baseball bat. And I wanted to burn a logo in it to make it look more authentic. Had a really difficult time getting the stamps the right temperature. And my tries on a piece of scrap were less than ideal so I scrapped the whole idea and just left the logo off. Ahh, the things we try without the proper equipment!

David

Butch_Y · Post by **Butch_Y** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:54 pm

I too found it difficult to control the heat with the single stamps

Once I needed a small plate to stay heated. I took an old soldering iron and shoved the small plate (bout the size of a quarter) in between the element bend. It held nicely. May be you can do something like this if you can find a way to mount your stamp.

Maybe a straight tipped iron would work better in this case. Temp adjustment can be made by the length or thickness of the stamp itself and too, if you wanted, you can play with the resistors but that's a whole new school you're getting into now.

painter66 · Post by **painter66** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:29 am

I'm glad you brought this up. This is a topic I've been trying to get the Sages to elaborate on for a while (see my lonely post "Acrylic inlay rod with logo?") where I asked about this topic. There is a company that will make your one letter circular logo/letter in a round rod format surrounded by black and all you have to do is drill a hole slightly smaller than the circumference of the end of the rod. Then you slice off enough to hammer in flush and sand and buff. Your logo runs the length of the rod and is exactly what Peterson's uses on their higer ends. I know a few Seniors here at this forum know the source but I've yet to find anything on it considering the search engine and the How-Tos at this forum do not seem to be woking. If anyone knows would they please contribute to the hungry masses? Many thanks!

Butch_Y · Post by **Butch_Y** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:15 am

This would make me curious as well. I'm not sure if inlay would be ok for a stem but has anyone ever tried that. I seen once on eBay a diamond was planted on a full bent. That looked really nice.

But what are the pitfalls here? With heat would the inlay pop out? How would you mount it? Two part epoxy?

RadDavis · Post by **RadDavis** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:48 am

I'm not sure if inlay would be ok for a stem but has anyone ever tried that.

I believe Dunhill has been inlaying a white spot as their log for a while.

Seriously, there are a ton of makers who inlay their logos in the stem. Most do it after everything else is complete, including the bend in the stem, if any.

With theASP pipes, we just used a small end mill to drill a shallow, flat bottomed hole in the stem, put a drop of super glue in the bottom and insert the logo.

Rad

Butch_Y · Post by **Butch_Y** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 10:15 am

This could open a whole new ball of wax. I have to wonder now if I can make a small mold and pour my own logos.

painter66 · Post by **painter66** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 2:39 pm

RadDavis wrote:
I'm not sure if inlay would be ok for a stem but has anyone ever tried that.
I believe Dunhill has been inlaying a white spot as their log for a while.

Seriously, there are a ton of makers who inlay their logos in the stem. Most do it after everything else is complete, including the bend in the stem, if any.

With theASP pipes, we just used a small end mill to drill a shallow, flat bottomed hole in the stem, put a drop of super glue in the bottom and insert the logo.

Rad

Exactly Rad - This is the technique I'm speaking of - Does anyone know where to have the logos fabricated in large number? If so, please post.
Have a great weekend! :thumb:

Ray Cover · Post by **Ray Cover** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:05 pm

Scott,

A freind of mine who make really fine handmade fountain pens from scratch sometimes has a call to have something imprinted on the acrylic or ebonite parts.

He takes it to a local trophy sho that has a cnc lazer engraving machine. Once they program the logo into their machine they can cut it into the stem for you real quick and clean. Seems top me like it cost David about $5 to have this done on one of his pens.

If you have a trophy hops close to you it might be worth checking out. Paying a guy $5 to do it for you might be more cost effieceint than setting it up yourself.

Ray

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Stamping or Engraving Stems?

Stamping or Engraving Stems?

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