to carving a stamp smooth? I mean I sitting here, thanks to another snow day, carving my PLB for WA PLB and I'm trying to figure out a way to get out all the carve marks. I inked up the stamp, and it stamps nice and clean, but you can see where I have taken the PZ cut away. Does it matter that it's not clean, if the stamp image is.

This is the first stamp I have carved with PZ cut, and proably on the fourth image stamp ever, so any info is helpful:)

Thanks

Trish:)

I drive myself nuts trying to get it nice and smooth and never can. Its like tweezing eyebrows...it just gets thinner and thinner.

I have been paying attention to the stamps i have seen out in the wild and those i am getting in postals and they are not all cleanly smooth. As long as your are getting a clean stamped image i think its ok.

Alot of people enjoy seeing those marks believe it or not! They add charector. It makes it more like art. more human. I have gone the oppisite way with my recessed markings. rather than remove them I make them part of the overall apperance of the carving. I try to have them all going in the same direction or in an appropriate direction to make them almost like a background for the stamp.
chadams

My issue is that if I pay to much attention to the mess in the back I tend to mess up the actual stamp!!! It's always just an OPPS ! But it happens more often than I like, so be careful with the back part, don't sacrafice your stamp image for a smooth background!!!

good carving, enjoy the journey,
teekasue

Quote

I drive myself nuts trying to get it nice and smooth and never can. Its like tweezing eyebrows...it just gets thinner and thinner

That's what is happening to me. I just keep going and going, and I know I'm going to wreck the stamp if I don't stop. But for some reason I can't stop:(

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one;)

Trish:)

Quote

Alot of people enjoy seeing those marks believe it or not! They add charector.

Hey I guess I was adding character and didn't know it:)

Thanks chadams:) Maybe now I will be able to stop destroying my stamp and leave it with some character:)

Trish:)

Quote

I tend to mess up the actual stamp!!! It's always just an OPPS !

That's just about what I did. That's when I thought I would ask the opinion of the great people here on AQ:)

Thanks to everyone:)

Trish(who is now going to start on another stamp, and leave my first one with some character:)

After I have the stamp carved, I try to cut away (with scissors or a box cutter) a large amount of the excess material around what I have carved so that the shape of the PZ Kut basically imitates the shape of the stamp. This gets rid of most of the problem. Then I just test stamp, carve away any problem areas, test stamp and repeat.

TG

To get the knife marks out of your stamp you can turn your knife at an angle. This will allow the flat side of the knife to smooth the stamp, BUT as was stated before, some folks dig that wrinkled look. As long as the stamp image is clean who cares if it has wrinkles in the cutaway. Most folks look for it and enjoy that feature. There is no question about it being a hand carved stamp when you see that.

Quote

Alot of people enjoy seeing those marks believe it or not! They add charector. It makes it more like art. more human.

very true...especially with certain images

Quote

I have gone the oppisite way with my recessed markings. rather than remove them I make them part of the overall apperance of the carving. I try to have them all going in the same direction or in an appropriate direction to make them almost like a background for the stamp.

nothing makes me doubt my carving abilities more than TRYING to leave the marks in the right places to get the "woodcut" effect...and not being able to do so. *pulling hair out* Only once or twice have I gotten the rough or rustic look of a woodcut when I wanted it...but doing fine details that are part of a printed black and white image come easy to me. I think it's like an artisitic block...like a writer's block...I can't "see" where the cuts should be that would make the woodcut appearance without an image showing them too me. Drives me bonkers... well...I'm already bonkers...but you get my drift ;)

but i do agree with Chadams on this...
sometimes the imperfections or intentional extra lines make the image more special
and fun too

dixie

There is a SpeedBall blade that makes a flat cut instead of a groove cut. It looks like a flat ended shovel with high sides. It is great for cutting out the "empty" areas.

Scarab