Lee Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 following on from this topic It inspired me to make a leather embosser like the one Peter / sweden showed us on the topic, I have christened mine the Bäckmans & Heres how I made it! First of all I brought a 12.99 soldering iron from B&Q and found an of cut of 1†x ¼ metal bar. Next I engraved http://www.cobb-lees.com onto the bar at 1.5mm deep. Then I carefully cut around the engraving and filed the edges as near as possible to the engraving. Next I cut of the end of the soldering iron and drill a hole in the back of my die. Then I pressed in the soldering iron end into the die. As you can see from these tests it takes a bit of practice getting used to the amount of pressure to exert onto the sole for a good embossing. It took about 5 attempts up the sole to get the correct pressure & time but the final test; once finished and stained looked OK! (just need a little more to the left!) I will experiment a little further before doing it on my repaired shoes! Lee This post has been promoted to an article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironplanet uk900 Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 thats great Lee, nice one. Only us shoe repairers would diversify like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter / Sweden Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 Well done,Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kobblers Posted July 21, 2007 Report Share Posted July 21, 2007 hey, that's mega cool might make me one o' those, well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh-Candoit (ENG) Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 Cold stamping on damp leather works better as our USA freind has pointed out. But Lee, you have given me an idea, i have a heavy duty industrial soldering machine (and I know where it is), going to look if it can be used as you have done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lee. Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Great effort Lee , just shows what you can do if you have the imagination and skill to adapt one tool for an alternative use . Few tips and pointers that may help you improve your stamping Brass would have been a far better material to use due to its heat conductivity, depth of type could do with being a little bit more @ 2.5 mm would have been better , and a slight radius at the face would help a little as well . Embossing onto soling Leather is a fine balance between heat and pressure applied , and the correct "dwell" time is also crucial, that is assuming you are using "unfinished" Veg Tanned Leather ( oak bark and the like). By "unfinished" i mean a natural traditional english tanned leather , the italian soles all have a very thin coating of either paint or polyurethane applied after the tanning process to hide any slight imperfections , trying to emboss these types of leather is maore about pressure than using heat , as all you do is burn the coating. Heat produced by soldering iron is too high , hence the burn that you appear to have in the photos, try heating iron up and then switching off before embossing . More depth on the font height would mean that you could apply more pressure before the base plate also came into contact with the leather. Keep up the sterling efforts , your results will improve with practice. Having embossed literally hundreds of 1000s of Leather soles over the years , as well as being an expert in the field of pyrography and leather tooling and embossing i hope you will take these hints and tips in the spirit they were intended . I mainly use a toggle action "hot foil" type press with either engraved Brass or photo etched 8g Magnesium alloy dies for soling leather , and a straight forward air operated heated press for sock stamping . Suggest you try Cold stamping with your engraved steel die , simply attach to a heavy punch and hammer into dampend leather in one precise confident blow. , regards Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted July 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 Thats a great article Andy thanks for your imput, I didn't think through the die to hard, just wandered into the garage found an off cut, and had a go! I might make a make 2 version! I agree that "Embossing onto soling Leather is a fine balance between heat and pressure applied" and in the case of the example "first" attempt, the soles did have a very thin coating of either paint or polyurethane applied after the tanning process to hide any slight imperfections. I hadn't thought of Cold stamping! I'll give this a try today. I'll post up some pictures when I get time. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted July 31, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 I have just had a go at "cold" embossing a sole using my Bäckmans. I have decided to mark the waists of my soles so the details don't get walked away! It will also allow my finishings to cover burn marks (if used hot) or imperfections! anyway this is how it finished! it was quite even but the light on the picture doesn't show it up as such Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Thats looks ace, nice little touch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironplanet uk900 Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Nice one Lee. I like it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ SOLUTIONS Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 thats looks good, nice touch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyfast Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 we just engrave our name onto the leather soles via our engraving machine( m40g) looks great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh-Candoit (ENG) Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Why not get the wholesaler to have a stamp made for you, pay for it so that it belongs to you them get them to stamp all your soles for you, that way they all come out evenly stamped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted August 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 Why not get the wholesaler to have a stamp made for you, pay for it so that it belongs to you them get them to stamp all your soles for you, that way they all come out evenly stamped. This will probably be the next stage, nut in the mean time my stamp works just fine Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gingerbas Posted September 5, 2007 Report Share Posted September 5, 2007 Looks a fantastic job Lee. How much you charging for making one of those up? I can suppy metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted September 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2007 Looks a fantastic job Lee. How much you charging for making one of those up? I can suppy metal. I ain't! I have enough off cuts of metal to make loads, but as for making them, they are too time consuming! did it just for fun really. although I have been embossing with it ever since! Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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