Silver stamping help!

Hello,

I am new to working with jewellery :)
I purchased some stamping supplies and am finding it is harder than it looks!
I have some impressart design stamps- two flowers and a palmtree so quite intricate designs. I am using the impressart hammer, bench block and blanks also. Although the stamps have come out fairly well on the aluminum blanks, when I have tried to stamp them onto sterling silver, they are barely showing! I feel like there is something i am doing wrong that must be really obvious but I just can’t work it out. I did think maybe the silver needs to be annealed?
I have tried to find out online but every video I watch uses the same materials and equipment.
If anyone could give me some tips that would be great! Much appreciated.

There is no doubt that the impression would be easier to establish if the Silver is annealed, do you you have a torch you can use to do this, heat to a very dull red and allow to cool this will discolour the silver and you will need to Pickle and polish the piece
what Silver do you have, blanks made for impression art normally are already annealed, maybe you just need to hit the stamp with more force

Quote:

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Originally Posted by china

There is no doubt that the impression would be easier to establish if the Silver is annealed, do you you have a torch you can use to do this, heat to a very dull red and allow to cool this will discolour the silver and you will need to Pickle and polish the piece
what Silver do you have, blanks made for impression art normally are already annealed, maybe you just need to hit the stamp with more force

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Hello,
Thanks for the reply!
I am using the sterling silver blanks from Cookson Gold so i did think they were already annealed.
I am using as much force as possible! I have also used the tilt and tap technique. However, i am just using the bench block straight onto a table- i questioned that maybe it needed a rubber block underneath?

Personally I don't think a rubber block will solve your problem, when you say "bench block" it is steel not timber?
Interestingly I looked at the Cookson website, some of there blanks they specify fully annealed and some the don't. Do you have the equipment to anneal one and see if it makes a difference

Also spend some time on more research, for instance here: https://www.google.com/search?client...w=1343&bih=760

I would add that your table needs to be solid and have no bounce. Stamping requires a dead blow. Any bounce in your surface makes it a lot harder. As far as I know the rubber block just helps it not be so loud.

We regularly stamp using impressart stamps onto sterling silver and have found an arbor press the best way for us. When we first started the impression was a bit hit and miss, but using the press makes it much more consistent. We spent a lot of trial and error getting just the right amount of hammering for the right effect and it also depended on which letter you struck too. Having said that, it does depend on the stamps you buy.

One more point, a nice heavy hammer will also help, at least half a kilo