I tried something new today that worked so well I want to share it.

I prepared a stamp blank in the usual manner by cutting out rubber, foam, and wood and gluing them together in a stack. Then, because I wasn't totally confident in the condition of the rubber surface I was going to be carving on, I cleaned up the surface as follows: I took a piece of cotton cloth from an old T-shirt and soaked a small area in the middle with some acetone. Then I stretched this cloth over a flat surface -- it happened to be a small piece of particleboard that I often use as a work surface, but it can be pretty much anything that's truly flat and won't be damaged by the acetone. Then, quickly before the acetone evaporates, put the block face-down on it and rub it back and forth a few seconds.

It worked even better than I hoped. In perhaps ten seconds, the surface is perfectly flat, perfectly clean, and perfectly smooth.

It's going to be a rare day indeed from now on when I don't do this! It's so quick and easy and completely eliminates any concerns about whether the stamp will stamp properly when you're done carving on it.

Sweet! I love hearing about people's experiments. You can get the same results in another way too. Color the entire stamp surface with a black permanent marker and let it dry completely. The ink will hold really well after that and make a nice smooth impression. A dear Silverback showed me this trick and it works really well!

LW PhD
"Nice Counts"

That is a great piece of information, but tell me, where does one procure acetone in a readily fasion?

I found 100% acetone next to the other nail polish removers at my local store.

TG

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That is a great piece of information, but tell me, where does one procure acetone in a readily fasion?

Hardware store.

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You can get the same results in another way too. Color the entire stamp surface with a black permanent marker and let it dry completely. The ink will hold really well after that and make a nice smooth impression.

I tried that, and frankly it didn't work worth a rip. The first couple of stampings were no better than before. The couple after that had a mixture of the color of the ink and the color of the permanent marker -- which evidently wasn't all that permanent. Maybe the solvents in the ink dissolved it.

Besides, the idea of using a black marker only addresses one possible problem with the rubber surface, that of local areas that don't seem to hold ink well. This idea of using an acetone-soaked cloth will fix any problem with the surface -- including those that cause pieces of PZ Kut to be considered Grade B. It'll make Grade B better than untreated Grade A.

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where does one procure acetone in a readily fasion?

Any place that sells paint. It comes in a metal gallon can, although you might be able to get it in a smaller metal can. Hardly any reason to, it's pretty cheap.

You should heed a couple of warnings when using acetone. One is that it's extremely flammable, just like gasoline. The other is that it's a really effective solvent and will often dissolve things you don't think it will. That's why it comes in a metal can; it'll eat through just about any form of plastic sooner or later. If you get it on your clothes, you'll find it'll dissolve most synthetic materials in a heartbeat. That's why I specified that a cotton cloth be used.

Isnt acetone the stuff that they use to take off fake fingernails? If so you can get it at a beauty supply store.

I have half a bottle that says its pure acetone. Its in a plastic bottle. I used it once to soak off my artifical nails and the rest is just sitting there.

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Isnt acetone the stuff that they use to take off fake fingernails? If so you can get it at a beauty supply store.

I have half a bottle that says its pure acetone. Its in a plastic bottle. I used it once to soak off my artifical nails and the rest is just sitting there.

Yes, that is exactly what the 100% acetone I have says it is for.

TG

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I tried that, and frankly it didn't work worth a rip. The first couple of stampings were no better than before. The couple after that had a mixture of the color of the ink and the color of the permanent marker -- which evidently wasn't all that permanent. Maybe the solvents in the ink dissolved it.

Besides, the idea of using a black marker only addresses one possible problem with the rubber surface, that of local areas that don't seem to hold ink well. This idea of using an acetone-soaked cloth will fix any problem with the surface -- including those that cause pieces of PZ Kut to be considered Grade B. It'll make Grade B better than untreated Grade A.

Aye..more's the pity....we must be using much different permanent markers and/or inks. Mine, once allowed to dry completely ( like overnight) has NEVER bled or cause the ink I use to pick up any black. Or maybe you aren't allowing it to dry COMPLETELY in the much more humid climate of Florida?

I basically try to use as little acetone or other caustic chemicals as I can. The permanent marker trick ( I use only genuine Sharpies) was well tested by many excellent carvers and on over 100 stamps carved by me personally. Methinks it is probably the difference in the products we're each using or the climate difference. *Shrug* But my experiments have DEFINATELY solved the exact problem of areas not holding ink or beading it up. It's like the permanent marker "seals" the surface. Keep trying on scraps with different products and let it dry COMPLETELY if you are like me and don't want to use the caustic stuff. You'll eventually hit on the winning combination!

LW PhD

"Nice Counts"

Ohh..which reminds me. I've NEVER had a problem with inks beading up unless I have used a stamp pad which was once frozen ( like over one of our famous CNY winters, which is why I don't plant ink anymore) or unless I used those cheap dye based pads from Walmart. The permanent marker trick previously mentioned solved those problems entirely. I now use only the "Ink it Up!" dye pads which are remarkably cheap but seem to last FOREVER..or ColorBox and/or VersaInk pigment based inks. ( my fave are the little square ones that I carry in a lock n lock in my pack).

Some people don't use pigment ink because they think it takes too long to dry, but if you carry a slip of extra paper or issue and lay it over the freshly stamped image and then close the logbook or journal just ONCE..it takes care of any extra ink and doesn't smear the image at all. The nice thing about the pigment ink is that even if the logbook then gets waterlogged..your pigment image will be the only thing that survives..while the dye based images will be almost completely GONE, as the dye ink has run all over the damn thing.

Ask any of us who rescued boxes from this year's record flooding in New York. Whoa. :)

LW PhD

"Nice Counts"

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The permanent marker trick ( I use only genuine Sharpies)

Ah, it wasn't a Sharpie I used but rather a regular old "permanent" magic marker. That probably makes quite a difference, since a Sharpie isn't like any other permanent marker I've ever used. It's certainly not like this one. I have Sharpies, I just didn't understand that's what I was supposed to use.

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...Keep trying on scraps with different products and let it dry COMPLETELY if you are like me and don't want to use the caustic stuff. You'll eventually hit on the winning combination!

I've already hit on the winning combination, so I won't be doing any more fiddling with markers. BTW, there's nothing caustic about acetone.

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have Sharpies, I just didn't understand that's what I was supposed to use.

Sorry, I should have mentioned it was a Sharpie in my first post regarding this successful method.

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BTW, there's nothing caustic about acetone.

Aye, but there's the rub. You've obviously never paid $35 for acrylic nails. :)

LW PhD ( who is a hardened tomboyish hiker, but goes all girlie-girl around the holidays)

"Nice Counts"

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You've obviously never paid $35 for acrylic nails. :)

Good point!

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Isn't acetone the stuff that they use to take off fake fingernails?

After setting up the Christmas tree I had sap all over my hands, so I used my acetone to dissolve it. Of course my hands didn't smell too good afterwards. Anyway my GF (Sun2Moon) asked me how I got it off and I handed her the can (the big can I got at the hardware store). Later she came back and complained that all her nail polish had come off! I was like, before taking a bath in it, did you ask yourself what is acetone?

Not to stray too far from the subject, but I've used cooking oil to get Christmas tree sap off the hands. It's much kinder to the skin.

DebBee

I think that some smart person/persons should gather all of this cool advice & information and put it on a page for us not so smarts (I mean less experienced) to read and use. There is so much to learn about carving that I am only gathering in small bits and pieces here and there on posts. There are already pages and pages on the how tos of finding and planting, but not carving. I have searched many sites and gathered many opinions on the a b c's of carving, but there are so many fine points that are not covered. I know that there are many opinions on how to do things, but if they are listed out we can choose which is best for us instead of searching in the dark until one day we read a post and - duh, the light goes on.

Tricia/beachcombers

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You should heed a couple of warnings when using acetone. One is that it's extremely flammable, just like gasoline. The other is that it's a really effective solvent and will often dissolve things you don't think it will. That's why it comes in a metal can; it'll eat through just about any form of plastic sooner or later. If you get it on your clothes, you'll find it'll dissolve most synthetic materials in a heartbeat. That's why I specified that a cotton cloth be used.

INCLUDING BRAIN CELLS. USE IT IN A WELL VENTALATED AREA!

Don

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I prepared a stamp blank in the usual manner by cutting out rubber,

There is a key piece of information missing here:

What KIND of rubber stamping material?

More to the point: what kind of rubber requires this much of this sort of preparation?

I've always used SpeedyStamp (the pink stuff), and I've never, ever, ever had a problem with carving and inking right out of the package.

Oh, wait... that's not totally accurate: the only time I experienced difficulty with the surface not carving or inking well was when I was testing an iron toner transfer. The printer's toner did not want to release from the paper without a significant amount of heat, and by then the heat of the iron had irreparably changed the physical structure of the rubber. But that was a test, not an actual plantable stamp.

StarSAELS

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After setting up the Christmas tree I had sap all over my hands, so I used my acetone to dissolve it. Of course my hands didn't smell too good afterwards.

Well, yeah, there's that. If my hands stink like acetone, I wash them with "Fast Orange" hand cleaner -- which leaves them smelling like oranges. Then wash with soap, which gets rid of the orange smell.

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Some people don't use pigment ink because they think it takes too long to dry, but if you carry a slip of extra paper or issue and lay it over the freshly stamped image and then close the logbook or journal just ONCE..it takes care of any extra ink and doesn't smear the image at all. The nice thing about the pigment ink is that even if the logbook then gets waterlogged..your pigment image will be the only thing that survives..while the dye based images will be almost completely GONE, as the dye ink has run all over the damn thing.

I have found just the opposite to be true, I like to stamp the image in dye ink then watercolor it for color. It works very well and the ink does not run or smear. I have never been able to do that with the pigment ink. (I must live in opposite world ;o) )

I do like your idea of blotting the image with the pigment ink I will have to try that one.

Mystic Dreamer

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I prepared a stamp blank in the usual manner by cutting out rubber,

There is a key piece of information missing here:

What KIND of rubber stamping material?

In this particular case I was treating orange PZ Kut. Being orange, it left an orange tint to the cloth when done. Acetone has a similar dissolving effect on every rubber stamp material I've tried it on, though, so I fully expect the treatment would work just as well on all of them.

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More to the point: what kind of rubber requires this much of this sort of preparation?

Any material on which the carving surface is not perfectly flat and smooth. I was using it on this particular piece of orange PZ Kut because a previous stamp, carved from the same piece, had some problems making a good image because the surface was a bit "grainy" in one area. This was Grade A, too.

It should also work well on Grade B. I expect that, in most cases of minor imperfections in the surface of Grade B, it would completely clear up those imperfections, allowing you to carve there rather than cut around them. It might take a rather heavy workout with the cloth and acetone, but scrap cloth is free, acetone is cheap, and this process is quick.

Another excellent use would be in doubling your stock of Mastercarve. Slice the block in half down the middle. Then, after constructing a stamp blank by bonding the original flat surface to foam and a hard backing, use this method to flatten the surface you sliced. I gave up on Mastercarve myself after finding PZ Kut, but I may actually try one more block just to see how well this works.

Finally, I expect it would work well on some erasers. Some erasers come perfectly flat, but others come out of the package a bit rounded. That usually doesn't make any difference unless you try to carve an image too close to the edges. But with this method you can square it up nicely so you don't need to worry if you're getting too close to the edges.

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I've always used SpeedyStamp (the pink stuff), and I've never, ever, ever had a problem with carving and inking right out of the package.

Speedy-Stamp is consistently excellent and will only in rare cases need such treatment. I have found one or two cases where Speedy-Stamp had a tiny "pink pimple" in the material -- but even then you can usually just flip it over and use the other side. Perhaps the only time you'd need to clean up the surface in this manner would be if you are using an oddball-shaped piece and cannot flip it over, and can't mirror the image for some reason.

Of course, this method would also work well to get the label off the Speedy-Stamp.

Perhaps I should mention that before I found this method, I had done some cleanup just using a paper towel and acetone, but in cases where a lot of cleanup had been required, the surface didn't end up flat. Ungood -- and leads one to the conclusion that just doing a bit of cleanup in this manner leaves the surface just a little unflat. Probably not a problem, but couldn't hurt to do it right know that we know a method that doesn't leave it unflat at all.

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Oh, wait... that's not totally accurate: the only time I experienced difficulty with the surface not carving or inking well was when I was testing an iron toner transfer. The printer's toner did not want to release from the paper without a significant amount of heat, and by then the heat of the iron had irreparably changed the physical structure of the rubber. But that was a test, not an actual plantable stamp.

This acetone scrub would probably have fixed that block pronto so you could try again.

I should reinterate, though, that it's generally not a good idea to use acetone on a surface that's already been carved. Remember that stamp I mentioned above that wasn't inking right due to a grainy surface? Well, I went ahead and did this acetone scrub on it because nothing else was working. It cleaned up the surface perfectly, but there were many fine white lines in the image -- tiny grooves in the rubber -- that all but disappeared. You could still see them looking at the rubber (they were still holding some ink) but in the stamped image itself they were mostly gone. So I just broke out the carving tools and the strong reading glasses and went back over them. The fix was a total success, the stamp now works fine -- but I consider myself lucky on this one, it could just as easily have resulted in needing to start over with a new piece of rubber.

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BTW, there's nothing caustic about acetone.

Well, speaking as a chemist, I'd say you're only half right. Caustic often carries the connotation of being a powerfully alkaline substance (having a pH above 7), and acetone is nearly neutral. However more generally, caustic can refer to a substance which is corrosive, and if you have ever spilled acetone on polystyrene, nylon, vinyl acetate, or many other polymers you can see how very easily it dissolves these materials.

In terms of being a health danger, I would say that a few drops on your fingertips in a well-ventilated area every week or so is no cause for alarm, but I certainly wouldn't wash my hands in it, nor would I use it for extended periods of time in a small room. Acetone can be absorbed through the skin, and is mildly toxic to the liver. It has also been tied to impaired functioning of the reproductive system. I'm no chemophobe, as I work with chemicals for a living. I'm not afraid of acetone, and I use it on a weekly basis for stamp carving. But I treat this solvent with respect, and limit my exposure to it when I can.

For more info, check out any MSDS for acetone, like:
http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Acetone-9927062

Be safe, & use common sense.


GG

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I've used cooking oil to get Christmas tree sap off the hands

I've licked it off.

Shiloh

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I've licked it off.

Ah yes, that works. Then you have to drink the cooking oil to get your tongue off of your palate. Just like that old Tar Baby story. Or like giving a mouse a cookie . . .

~Mama Cache

I have found that cooking oil applied directly to sap on clothing, worked in, and then use a dish detergent, such as DAwn to wash out the oil, works wonders on getting sap out. It also works on cavnas on pop up trailers, etc. When told about it initially, I was a little bit skeptic, but tried it, and it works!

LtW