Pickle and stamp punches

[Bluebirdjew]

Hi,

Does anyone know if pickle in the power form goes out of date ??
Theres nothing on the label. Ive not been making jewellery for a few years and wondered if this pickle would be ok to use. Its maybe 5 years old!

Im also looking to have a try with wording on silver and wondered if anyone could advise the best (Not too expensive) metal stamps / punches to buy and best place to purchase them from ??

Any advise will be greatly accepted, sorry if these have been asked a million times!

Thank you!

[Wallace]

it might be okay - try and see I guess might be a way forward.

I use Alum which seems to have a life of its own and makes more crystals at the drop of a hat!

Punches, will depend on size and type. Plain or fancy.

I have some stamps, with A-Z 1m and 1.5mm, and some with designs I got a long time back. I never use them, now. I really should sort out those things, along with the foredom polisher! will try and get something organised in terms of pictures. pm if you are interested

[SteveLAO]

You can buy a set of alphabet punches pretty cheaply from the "usual sources" - cooksons, hs walsh, suttons, those sort of places. Stamping out whole words using individual letter punches though takes quite some skill to make the word look good as you constantly have to line up each punch...as well as it taking ages.

The other alternative would be to have a single punch made with an entire word on it. There are a number of options there, and we do make punches here like that, but I have to say they won't be terribly inexpensive, much as I'd love to take your money! If you want to follow up on specifics, please feel free to pm me and I'll give you all the finer details.

Or of course you could go down the laser route?

[mizgeorge]

If you're looking to make some of the hand stamped items that are very popular at the moment, take a look at CJ Beaders, who import a wide range of different fonts, rather than the conventional (and very dull) sans punches from most of the big suppliers:

http://www.cjbeaders.co.uk/maincategory/Metal_Stamping

[Dennis]

Pickle won't go out of date, but it does absorb moisture and form large hard lumps. If so, break it up while tied in a strong plastic bag. Whatever you do, avoid an iron hammer or other iron tool directly on it, for fear of having pickle which turns your silver pink. Dennis.

[Bluebirdjew]

Thanks Steve,
this stamping is all new to me, I was just going to try the individual punches but I would be interested in knowing other options!

[Bluebirdjew]

Hi Wallace,
I may be interested in your stamps, Im looking for different sizes and different styles. (fancy & plain)
thank you !

[Bluebirdjew]

Thanks everyone else for the advice!