Thread: Thoughts on using a hot stamp?

What 10PUPS said is normalizing.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

You can temper at about 400 degrees (depending on the steel ) but to normalize your going to have to get closer to critical or past it and hold for awhile. This should be done before or at heat treating time. If your going to stamp make sure you have the right stamp. You can stamp cold but if you use a cold stamp on hot metal your going to be , well ,,,, changing the properties of the metal in the stamp and it won't last long. A good stamp is going to run you some money. I have yet to see one on Etsy that's for sure. At least last time I looked. Another thing you have to watch is smacking the poo out of it and bending your tang. There is most of my mistakes in a nutshell :<0)

I was gonna get a stamp made by the folks who made the stamps in this video



It sounds like the normalization will have to be done by whoever does the heat treat, 'cause I do not have the gear to heat the whole blade to critical and hold it.


Another thought I've been having is whether it would be possible to make a press to imprint a hot stamp, that'd go something like this:

1. heat tang with propane torch
2. stick tang into press
3. crank it down(?)
4. remove

What I think would happen in this scenario is:

1. heat tang with propane torch
2. stick tang into press
3. lose significant heat to thermal conduction of metals
4. crank it down
5. stamp loses temper, usage life is seriously decreased
6. remove
7. be unsatisfied with results
8. be irritated by damage to tools
9. abandon method

My mark is a simple "SG". I stamp the steel directly if using stock removal or after I have annealed. This way the steel is soft. Its also when I drill my holes.

If the steel is annealed properly, then you can stamp cold. That's what Scott does with his letter stamps, and it's what I do with a chisel.

I know for a fact you can draw Zak. Any sketches????????


Or are you going to keep it a surprise.

Originally Posted by JP5

I know for a fact you can draw Zak. Any sketches????????


Or are you going to keep it a surprise.

Keeping it a surprise.

Cold stamp sounds the best for you buddy ! The only thing you have to worry about then is work hardening. Your material should come annealed or your not paying enough for it. And it sounds like your going with "removal method" for making your razors so you should be good.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

Cold stamp sounds the best for you buddy ! The only thing you have to worry about then is work hardening. Your material should come annealed or your not paying enough for it. And it sounds like your going with "removal method" for making your razors so you should be good.

Yup! Gonna try and get the blanks cut on a water jet tomorrow or Monday, it just depends on how much data massage I’ve got to do to get my vector art into the machine.

Anyone who’s done this have any thoughts on how close to the final shape my blanks should be?

My current thinking is: everything but the blade edge cut on the waterjet to the exact blade shape. That way there’s some room to grind off the carburized edge after heat-treat.

(My thinking here is based entirely on what I’ve seen Charlie do in his videos).

The outline is the easy part and you can leave long whatever you choose so that you can make decisions as you go. Your still going to have to do some shaping and grinding after the cut and not to mention your hollow. Point is are you set on 8/8 or are you leaving yourself room to do a couple 16/8s LOL. You get my point though. I would also talk to your heat treat guy before you do your first hollow. The thing is that thin means chance of warp or worst yet cracking. Can hardly wait to see what you come up with.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

The outline is the easy part and you can leave long whatever you choose so that you can make decisions as you go. Your still going to have to do some shaping and grinding after the cut and not to mention your hollow. Point is are you set on 8/8 or are you leaving yourself room to do a couple 16/8s LOL. You get my point though. I would also talk to your heat treat guy before you do your first hollow. The thing is that thin means chance of warp or worst yet cracking. Can hardly wait to see what you come up with.

I'm starting with a moderate 7/8 razor.

The steel is already in hand -- I bought this to start with.

Took the basic use class in using the water jet and tomorrow I'll go in and cut out six blanks, then use the lathe to make some washer punches. I'd intended to get some work done on punches and maybe cutting the blanks tonight, but instead went and watched the CNC machine to see how viable that would be for making razors -- clearly, depending on the CNC machine in question the answer is 'very', but the one available to me here will probably work, but there's a steep learning curve and I'm gonna start doing things easy. Basically, it looks like I could CNC everything that happens before heat treat, which still leaves some grinding on the other side.

Speaking of heat treat -- I need to find someone to do that, which will be another thread just as soon as I've got blanks to grind.

Oh yeah, also gonna use the waterjet to build a frame for a 2x72 contact wheel grinder (though I'm seriously thinking of using 1 inch wheels for maximum Sheffield-i-tude).