STAMPING BARRELS

[JOHN F]

hey guys i got a cross septor stamp to mark my barrels .. does anyone have an experience doing this .. i did my fowler but i am not really happy with the outcome .. any help???

 

[Mike Brooks]

I takes several well placed blows to make a good mark. I hold the stamp with a pair of vice grips and carefully place the stamp in the correct spot for each smack.

 

[Birddog6]

:shake: DO NOT................ even try to hold it with your fingers & stamp it hard........ That sucker will come out of you fingers & sting the livin H out of them !! :shocked2: Plus it takes off into the workshop area call "Never-never-Land"..... You know, the place things go & you don't find them til 3 yrs later ?

Clamp it with some vice grips or make a holder with a handle on it. Practice on some other metal first. Make ONE STAMP....... If you try to restamp & it is no Perfectly in the old one, then ya end up with 2-3-4-5 overstamps & it looks like manure...... :redface:

And if it is a thin barrel, you best do it over the breechplug threads as you will dent the bore & see it & feel it. I stamp all of mine over the breech thread area & have never had a problem stamping them there & no issues getting the breechplug in & out either.

 

[paulvallandigham]

IF you do have to hit it more than once to get the stamping deep enough, FIRST, remove the stamp die from the visegrips, and set it down to allow gravity to make it fit into the early Impression in the steel, no matter how shallow. Then HOLDING the die in place, put the vise grips back on.

A Better way to do this is to clamp a guide on the barrel to brace one edge of the die against before you give it that "smack". If you can clamp a 90 degree angle guide to the barrel, ALL the better! That helps limit movement in both right and left, and up and down directions, making it a sure bet that the die will return to the same location for a subsequent "smack".

You are much less likely to put a dent all the way into the bore on a thin barrel, it you use a number of lighter "smacks", than using one BIG ONE! The stamp is not cutting metal, but rather moving metal away. It will move in all directions it physically can.

A lot of gunbuilders switch, eventually, to etching their names, serial number, etc. in the barrel, to avoid these problems. Coat the metal with wax. then cut the design or letters, and numbers, into the wax. Then use an eye dropper to put the liquid acid into the cuts in the wax. Let the acid work until the etching is as deep as you desire. Then neutralize the acid in water, and remove the wax. Wax can be removed by scraping, or my heating it up until it melts off. An old rag, or paper toweling will take up the wax easily.

 

[Birddog6]

............IF you do have to hit it more than once to get the stamping deep enough, FIRST, remove the stamp die from the visegrips, and set it down to allow gravity to make it fit into the early Impression in the steel, no matter how shallow. Then HOLDING the die in place, put the vise grips back on.

Paul... tried that many it is virtually impossible to get back exactly in place by holding it with vicegrips...... If I had 4 hands & 3 pairs of eyes, I may be able to do it...... Or if it was just a letter, maybe.. but not my trademark stamp.....

........A Better way to do this is to clamp a guide on the barrel to brace one edge of the die against before you give it that "smack". If you can clamp a 90 degree angle guide to the barrel, ALL the better! That helps limit movement in both right and left, and up and down directions, making it a sure bet that the die will return to the same location for a subsequent "smack".

This is possible... but you would have to make a new jig for ever different barrel as all the barrel flats are a dif size.. or a adjustable jig or something of that nature........

.......... You are much less likely to put a dent all the way into the bore on a thin barrel, it you use a number of lighter "smacks", than using one BIG ONE! The stamp is not cutting metal, but rather moving metal away. It will move in all directions it physically can.

I can agree with this....

...........A lot of gunbuilders switch, eventually, to etching their names, serial number, etc. in the barrel, to avoid these problems. Coat the metal with wax. then cut the design or letters, and numbers, into the wax. Then use an eye dropper to put the liquid acid into the cuts in the wax. Let the acid work until the etching is as deep as you desire. Then neutralize the acid in water, and remove the wax. Wax can be removed by scraping, or my heating it up until it melts off. An old rag, or paper toweling will take up the wax easily.

Yes, this can be done, but I just like cutting my name in them with a graver like they did years ago.

The best thing I have seen to hold a stamp to keep it straight is the jig the stamp company makes to hold it. You mount the stamp in the jig, slide the barrel under it, align it, hit the top of the jig & it stamps it. Now...... on a tapered barrel you would have to make a tapered ship to bring it up flat & even, and this could require several dif. shims for dif. tapers in swamped barrels, but it is the best ? gadget I have seen yet. I am too cheap to buy it tho. Probably will try to make it some day when I get the want to adventure another new jig or holder or whatever.....

Right now I use a auto brake pad tool that just happened to have a 3/8" square hole in it...... welded a handle onto it & use that to hold the stamp by hand where I want it. Crude, but it works....... And it keeps the tool from flying off into Never-Never land.... :grin: And it is still a bugger to realign if I don't get it just right the first time. :redface:

 

[Mike Brooks]

The above stamps were struck in probably 1/2 dozen times each. Stamp always held with vice grips and always placed while in vice grips. Do not stamp over the breech plug threads, you will deform the barrel and your breech plug will not index properly. I have seen original english barrels that were struck so hard the the bore was indented, didn't make too much difference to the old timers I guess.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Here's an idea: Use a piece of Angle iron, or something make of aluminum allow, for the guide. File or cut a slot in one side of the guide to fit the outside dimension of your stamp die.

For tapered barrels. Drill and tap a hole for a 1/4" screw- machine threads(1/4-28?) and mount a narrow strip or "arm" of steel, that can then pivot across the die opening on the angled guide, to be adjusted for the the angle of taper. On the other end, drill and file a "slot- curved if it must be, depending on how much taper we are dealing with on various gunbarrels-- and tap a hole there also for a second machine screw. Now, by loosening one screw, you can adjust it to the taper you need, and hold the stamp in the correct position, just like an adjustable fence on a table saw.( In case someone thought I am a " creative genius" :rotf: )

You may want to have a right angled short section to the arm to butt the die against completely, But, the basic angle iron( or whatever) should be designed long enough to lay against both a side flat and the top flat on any barrel.

 

[Birddog6]

Mike. No so..... for me anyway. I have stamped my trademark on over 35 barrels, with my stamp OVER the breechplug with the plug in it & not one time have I had a issue with it indexing or being hard to get in or out. :wink: Your mileage may vary........ :wink:

Now if ya do it with the breechplug out ? Yes.... ya may have a problem child.......... :hmm:

 

[Mike Brooks]

Mike. No so..... for me anyway. I have stamped my trademark on over 35 barrels, with my stamp OVER the breechplug with the plug in it & not one time have I had a issue with it indexing or being hard to get in or out. :wink: Your mileage may vary........ :wink:

Now if ya do it with the breechplug out ? Yes.... ya may have a problem child.......... :hmm:

I dorked up a couple barrels that way...breech plug in while stamping. I was studying some originals and BANGO! noticed they were a ALL stamped ahead of the breech plug threads. So, I started stamping farther forward and my problem disappeared. I have to hit those English proof stamps pretty hard multiple times, so that may be why I was having problems and you weren't. Just as the original proofs, these are stamped in DEEP.

 

[Birddog6]

I have to whop my stamp pretty hard & use a 3# brass hammer. First time I used it I held it in hand & whopped it & the stamp left off to Never-Never Land for a week & my fingers went numb for 2 days. I see allot of the older stamps stamped the logo or trademark plus the area around them as well. I wondered if sometimes they stamped them before they bored & rifled them. :hmm:
I don't stamp mine that deep, I just want my logo itself stamped where it won't wear off & my rifles & knives can be easily ID'ed as one of mine.

I started out stamping them in front of the breechplug. Did a couple of C weight barrels OK, then did a B weight barrel in 50 cal & dented the bore. I could see it & feel it with a jag. So from that time forward I always stamped it over the breechplug & had no issues with it.

Looking at how deeply your front & back mark is, I can see where this could be an issue. Seems like stamping that deep you would surely dent in the bore, but apparently not......... :wink:

 

[Ed Wingenroth]

Use a roll stamp if you want to do what the big boy’s do !!! About 100.00 and a port-a-power with a moving table for a fixture/rack.. Pay’s off if you do a lot of line stamping..

EverStamp:
1-800-553-8377 Send Any Artwork Image Files As Attachment To: [email protected] For Price Quotes.

Ed”¦.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

I did mine with multiple hits. I did not lay the stamp flat on the barrel. I started my hits with the stamp angled so I was just hitting in the top of the stamp and slowly worked the stamp down til all was imprinted. I did not use vice grips though. I probably lost a gallon and a half of sweat on each of them. One little slip and you have a "double vision" impression. This was on a Colerain barrel. I cannot imagine trying to get a good impression on Rayl.

 

[JOHN F]

i wish you guys were near delaware ...i would supply all neccessary food and beverage and toatally beg till you guys helped me :grin: your stamps all look so damn good..i am trying to mark my pedersoli bess and it rates as one of the hardest.. my buddy tells me i need to sh!tcan the vise and do it on an anvil or my basement floor..he also said that my ball peen hammer is too light...keep the pics of thrproof marks coming they look great..
brother birddog ,like that stamp on your lock..did you make it yourself????

 

[Birddog6]

No I didn't make it. It was made by Everstamp. I sent them the drawing & they made the stamp.

 

[rich pierce]

Great examples from experienced guys. I'd not worry too much about denting the bore in the powder chamber area. Proof stamps had to be done after the barrels were proofed so they didn't worry too much about denting I guess. Probably wrought iron stamps like buttah.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The worry is on thin barrels. And if a barrel was actually made from soft iron, today, it would also be of concern. With the steel used today, and the thickness of the barrels made, to protect manufacturers from Strict Liability claims, there is NOT much chance of a stamp, put into the metal by hand, rather than a machine press, denting the inside of the bore. :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Brooks]

Denting the bore with these stamps with a barrel made of 12L14 is easy, I have probably dented all I have stamped that are small of breech and big of bore. My trade gun barrels are a 1" breech and 20 bore, not much barrel wall there.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have seen stamp denting come through on a shotgun barrel, and I have felt it in the grooves of a rifle barrel, but could not see the " bulge". Both had rather thin walls. The shotgun barrel was so thin that you could almost read the stamping by looking at the chamber end of the barrel! I know the stamp on the rifle barrel was done by hand. I was not able to learn about the source of the stamping on the shotgun barrel. :thumbsup:

 

[Ed Wingenroth]

WOW !!! Many great thought's about stamping your barrel but if it gets too thin to stamp, I would make/stamp a “doubler” (flag type) and solder it on the barrel”¦

:thumbsup:

8>))