Galoots

I'm making a hinged rule out of cherry, and ran into a problem while
punching the numbers. After punching the number 2, I noticed there was
some dirt in the bottom of the number, so I cleaned all my punches
with a brass brush. Then I punched the number 3 and realized the
brushing had smeared dirt all over the punch. Now I have a rule with a
number 3 that is almost black while the others are not. The dirt seems
to be mixed with grease (perhaps from the brass brush) and doesn't
what to come out.

So here's my question, how can I darken all the numbers to make them match?

The numbers are punched into the face grain of cherry, about 1/32"
deep. I could plane all the numbers away, but having darkened numbers
isn't a bad thing.

Thank you,
Chris

Might work to smear some sort of colorant across the numbers to darken them
and then clean up the surface with scotch-brite or something similar.  I'd
experiment on a piece of scrap first though.

On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 7:21 PM, Christopher Dunn <
christopherdunn123@g...> wrote:

Mark

I've solved the accuracy problem by making it totally inaccurate. I
agree the old wooden rules that were hand marked had a beauty of their
own. If you like the old wooden rules, this company still makes them
using the old Lufkin templates.

http://www.skowheganwoodenrule.com/

The old rule companies figured out the marking. After thinking about
it more, perhaps they:

1. punched the numbers.
2. put shellac on it to seal it.
3. painted the numbers.
4. wiped the paint off

I might try the above steps and see how it goes. Perhaps add step 1.5,
oil the cherry.

Thank you,
Chris

Colrozing(sp)?

Sent from my iPad

Markal Paint Stick     3 or 4 dollars apiece.  come in many colors
   Looks like a large crayon.

Scrape the surface of the stick to get to soft material, rub it on until 
letters are completely filled, rub off the excess, let it set.

   These are specifically made for shifter knobs and crane knobs and 
other demanding hard to mark numbers or letters.
Makes a nice color filler for narrow handle grooves too.

    They won't work for teensy shallow markings. But for fairly bold 
markings it goes on easy, hardens overnight, and lasts in even harsh 
environments. I have been using them forever.
  A stick will last the rest of your life.
     yours Scott


-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html



-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2015.0.6176 / Virus Database: 4460/11045 - Release Date: 11/22/15

In metal, I clean it with the appropriately lethal solvent.
After bathing in the solvent, I spray paint the part.
Then while bathed in a mist  toluene and ketones from the paint I 
immediately wipe off the paint with a rag.
POOF the numbers are darkened and it's pretty permanent.

In wood I just run a  sharp  pencil in the groove.

I have used a pantograph that I made using Matthias Wandel's model to 
carve numbers and filled 'em with layers of paint and metal flake.  
Darned thing works  great.

Way back in the waning years of the last century, I worked at A.J. Hastings
Store in Amherst, Massachusetts.  They sold many things, but stationery and
office supplies were a big part.  We had a machine that would emboss lettering
onto many different surfaces.  We primarily did pencils and leather or leather-
like  binders and diaries.  We charged by the impression and the number of
letters.  Color choices were gold, silver, white and black, iirc.

It was a heat transfer process, we built up the dies, not unlike compositing
print on a letter-press, which was held in a fixture that heated the type,
(brass I think).  The object to be printed upon was held in a clamp and a sheet
of dry transfer media was placed between the object and the die.  When it was
pressed together, the heated die struck an image on the object and the heat
transferred the ink or color into the struck image.  The media used had a heat
tolerant film backing, likely Mylar or something.  After finishing you burnished
the object to wipe away flecks of the colorant that went for the ride but didn't
belong.

The color media looked like little strips of carbon paper, well the black did
anyway, but must've been wax based as it transferred readily to the pencil (I
did a lot of pencils), but when cooled, remained in the impression and was
permanent.

It took some fiddling to get it the heat and pressure just right, too hot and
the letters spread, making the Os filled and blurry, same with too much
pressure.  Too little heat and the letters didn't fill entirely.  Or were faint
and spindly.

But you soon got the hang of it.  All the time I worked there, the pencils we
used were ones we used for practice with names or slogans covering every
surface.

You might try heating your punches and using Carbon paper to set the color?
Practice on scrap of course.

David Carroll

Sent from my iPad

Chris Dunn wrote:
>The old rule companies figured out the marking. After thinking about
>it more, perhaps they:

>1. punched the numbers.
>2. put shellac on it to seal it.
>3. painted the numbers.
>4. wiped the paint off

>I might try the above steps and see how it goes. Perhaps add step 1.5,
>oil the cherry.<


I've done similar things. for binding and for marking bone, even tried adding
milimeters to an old pocket folding rule once. Just the shellac may be enough,
if you use orange shellac and depending on the depth and width of the numbers
and lines (knife-cut narrow work best), and if you completely fill the
depression with the shellac. I suspect that this is all the old companies did.
Or you can, as suggested, try paint-- I've used India ink, more controllable and
dead black and already has shellac in it. Or you could try picking up ink on the
face of the punch from a stamp pad, or spread some thick oil-based ink on a bit
of board and pick that up. Narrow lines or numbers work best, they hold the ink
well, and depth isn't necessary. With a wide line you tend to wipe the ink out
when you wipe the surface. Wiping off the excess ink tends not to work well
enough, just enough ink is left to dirty the surface up, so you have to abrade a
bit.With a deeply-driven number, the impression widens and what you see when the
impression is completely filled is not the true shape, which is at the bottom of
the impression, but a thicker, less precise approximation---the stamp-pad idea
might be worth a first try if the numbers are driven in deeply. I would put
shellac on after pigmenting the numbers as well as before, especially if using
stamp-pad ink. I don't think I would oil the cherry before shellacking, since
this would darken the wood and reduce contrast and visibility of the numbers.
And my main experience is that its hard to get things to look good, so yes,
practice on scrap, and be prepared to abrade down the surface a bit to clean it,
or to narrow the punched lines (which, of course, may then require you to re-
punch if you narrow some too much.)

Tom Conroy

David Carroll gave an admirable (but extended and hard to snip) description of
hot-stamping with foil, and suggested adapting it for marking the ruler: "You
might try heating your punches and using Carbon paper to set the color?"
Short version: Carbon paper used cold with impact seems to give very good
results. I deprecate usefullness of hot stamping for this project.

Long version: Hot stamping is basic edition bookbinding technology so I've got
some experience with it. Gold and color foils for hot-stamping were developed in
(I believe) the 1920s or 1930s. You can get them readily, if you want them, from
TALAS, in a much narrower range of colors than are made but in relatively small
quantity:

www.talasonline.com
and search for "hot stamping foils" on the site.

The difficulty is the temperature needed, which is around 200 degrees
Fahrenheit. Too hot to hold in the hand, too difficult to control a normal punch
with pliers or suchlike, and it has to be just right. Foil is made to be used
with machines with controlled temperature and jigs for placement, since with the
foil in place on the substrate you can't see where you are going to stamp. You
can use foil with hand tools, but it takes practice.  Binders' hand tools are
set in wooden handles, and you heat them on a hotplate or alcohol lamp. You
deliberately overheat them a bit, then cool on a wet hunk of cotton until the
sizzle sounds right, just the way clothing irons were heated and judged by
spitting on them back in the day. In striking the tools your variables are
temperature, pressure, and dwell (length of time on the surface). If one
variable changes, the others will change too. And the optimum combination will
vary with the humidity and temperature of the room. In general with foil a
short, hard strike with a high temperature will work best-- but not too hot or
too hard or too short. You could make wood handles for your punches, or even one
handle that would take different punches, but you still have the problem of not
being able to see the placement on the substrate. I'd say it is a pretty steep
learning curve. Maybe not the steep side of Half-Dome, but steep.

Carbon paper used to be a standby back-up for fine binders working on leather.
Most veg-tanned leathers will darken attractively if tooled wet and slightly
hot. It's tricky, though, and when the impression didn't darken evenly or
adequately, one technique was to touch a hot tool to a piece of carbon paper,
picking up the black color on the face, and re-tool with that. This was less
than ideal because the wax carrier of the carbon paper stayed permanently
sticky, and accumulated dust over time; if the binding was to be varnished (done
in the 19th century, not today, basically very thin shellac) the varnish would
seal the wax and pigment in. Despite the dust-magnet problem, he technique
basically worked very well. However, forty or fifty years ago they came out with
"smudgeless" carbon papers, and hot tools don't pick up color from the new kind
(or if they do, it is just little partial blobs). My binding teacher has a
treasured single box of smudgy carbon paper from the old days, but I have none,
though I have once or twice begged a scrap from her for an important project.
You would never put carbon paper face-down on a binding and tool through it,
because the proper placement of the tool couldn't be found, and because the
smudgy carbon would irreversibly soil the surface of the binding.
Modern smudgeless carbon paper does seem to me to have possibilities for the
current project, though. Remember that it is made for use in typewriters, which
transfer the color by impact with a steel punch. Here's a procedure to try:
stamp the wood without color to get the location. Put a piece of carbon paper
over the place, face down. Gently feel the punch back into its impression. Then
strike it again with the hammer, replicating the strike of the typewriter key.
The more I think about that one, the more it feels like a possibility.
In fact: it seemed a good enough theory that I just went and tried it on a scrap
of pine, and it worked pretty well. A hard blow didn't work; it seems that it is
more effective to make the initial strike gently for a shallow impression, and
then striking with carbon paper in place seems to transfer better with a light
blow than a heavy one. And I found that the results were better if I repeated
the strike with carbon paper several times, using fresh bits of the paper. Good
possibilities on this method, if repeated (gentle) triking doesn't damage the
thine wood of the rule.
Tom Conroy

Galoots

Thank you for all your suggestions. I've got some experiments to run
and will let you know how it goes.

Thank you,
Chris