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different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Sep 30, 2005 1:42pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Being the strange sort of person that I am I would rather go into a store and buy my stuff instead of mail order. I can no longer get Mastercarve and my other choices are Speedystamp and Speedycut. Any opinions on these two?

Shiloh
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8860 by shiloh
Sep 30, 2005 1:52pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Speedball Speedy Stamp is the "Pink Stuff" It is the favorite of many people. If you are used to the thick pieces of Mastercarve, it will take some getting used to--

-Amanda from Seattle
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8860 by shiloh
Oct 2, 2005 10:13am
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Quote I can no longer get Mastercarve and my other choices are Speedystamp and Speedycut. Any opinions on these two?


Speedy-Stamp is good, but stay away from that Speedy-Cut! That freak of nature should never have seen the light of day! It crumbles and falls apart easier than anything else I've ever tried.

Speedy-Stamp: Good
Speedy-Cut: Very, very bad (Though, I will admit, if you just want to practice carving some throw-away stamps, it might be useful since it is cheaper than Speedy-Stamp. Never leave a Speedy-Cut stamp in a letterbox, though, it won't last very long at all.)

-- Ryan
Re: Erasers
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8918 by Green Tortuga
Oct 2, 2005 4:51pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Just a note, I have seen several new letterboxes in the Seattle area with stamps made from Art Gum Erasers. These are worse than Speedy-Cut, they crumble immediately. They crumble as you press them on the ink pad to stamp them, they crumble when you stamp them, they crumble when you place them in the ziplock bag. They are horrible!

If you want to use a cheap eraser, go to the dollar store and get the HARD plastic ones!! Or from the Art Supply/Michaels stores use the Staedtler Eraser. It is white and hard and is usually anywhere from 70 cents to 99 cents for one eraser. Just be careful which side you carve on because there is a raised logo on the Staedtler Eraser that can mess up your stamp image.

-Amanda from Seattle
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8918 by Green Tortuga
Oct 3, 2005 7:07pm
Thread (disabled) Board
The speedy stamp is pink right???

Is the speedy cut white????

We(read Jason) used some white stuff that is crap! It crumbles horribly!! We (He) is going to have to re-carve about 3 or 4 stamps. Darn it all.

jen
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8981 by Jensgreycar
Oct 3, 2005 7:23pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Yup - Pink is good. White is baaaaad.
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8981 by Jensgreycar
Oct 3, 2005 7:27pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Here's a good link to a fellow letterboxer's (& incredible artist) website that describes various carving media:

http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/carving/how-to3.htm

Speedball's 'white stuff' Speedy Cut is the YUCKY stuff!!! It's usually sold adjacent to Speedball's pink stuff (pink is good).

Hope this helps clarify some things.

dvn2r ckr
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8983 by daelphinus
Oct 3, 2005 7:40pm
Thread (disabled) Board
I tried that PZ Kut for the first time, and it is quite awesome. But before that, and still, for some things, I was a huge fan of Safe-T-Kut. You can order it from Nasco online. My favorite is to get the HUGE $25 block. It's something like 2 x 3 feet or something like that. I've used it for years and never had it crumble or deteriorate like that Speedball junk.
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8981 by Jensgreycar
Oct 4, 2005 5:15am
Thread (disabled) Board
One was pink and the other was orange, at least in the store I was in. I have been using the "Pink Pearls" with very good results but I sometimes want to carve something bigger than an erasure. The pink erasures are cheap enough, about 70 cents each if you buy them in a three pack.
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8993 by shiloh
Oct 4, 2005 5:51am
Thread (disabled) Board
I keep hearing about PZ Cut, and Speedball pink and white, etc... I have tried some of the them but wasn't happy. I now use MasterCarve exclusivly. I really like it, especially the thickness. Why don't I hear as much about it as the other brands? Am I missing something?
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8983 by daelphinus
Oct 4, 2005 5:52am
Thread (disabled) Board
That site is very informative--thanks! I browsed through the gallery and was blown away by her carvings. Wow.
Booknut
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8983 by daelphinus
Oct 4, 2005 9:13am
Thread (disabled) Board
I looked through the gallery of carvings and was amazed! There was incredible stamps there from all kinds of carving mediums.
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #9000 by The Wolf Family
Oct 4, 2005 9:27am
Thread (disabled) Board
I recently experimented with ordering online from a couple of sources and had good experiences. (It is a little tricky for me to have packages delivered to my hotel, thus the hesitation).

I have a bunch Speedy Cut stuff that I have been using to experiment with multi-color multi-stamps. And because many of these experiments failed, it was no great loss because the Speedy Cut really does carve faster than other media. It also crumbles faster...
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #9000 by The Wolf Family
Oct 4, 2005 10:31am
Thread (disabled) Board
Quote I looked through the gallery of carvings and was amazed! There was incredible stamps there from all kinds of carving mediums


Where do I find this gallery of wonderful stamps to show me how poor mine are?1
What is the link or dropdown location?

Thanks ... Max
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #9003 by Get Smart
Oct 4, 2005 10:56am
Thread (disabled) Board
Possible carving gallery to which you refer?

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/museum/316/
or
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/museum/316/galy.html

Linked via the Carving Consortium website:
http://www.negia.net/~unity/

The Carving Consortium is a listserv group devoted to carving stamps. Many of these incredible artists letterbox as well.

Where I'm a perfect example of an athlete (with nary an artistic bone in my body) who letterboxes (and my stamps truly support that claim). The Carving Consortium, on the other hand, are the artists who letterbox & their stamps are exquisite!!!
Re: Ruthann Zaroff's Gallery link
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #9003 by Get Smart
Oct 4, 2005 11:03am
Thread (disabled) Board
Here is the link to RuthAnn's Carvings on different medium:


http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/carving/index.htm

-Amanda
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #8983 by daelphinus
Oct 19, 2005 10:47am
Thread (disabled) Board
http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/carving/how-to3.htm

I liked the idea of gasket material. I'm going to look into that.
Re: different carving blocks
Board: Stamp Carving and Mounting
Reply to: #9603 by teamCatnip
Oct 19, 2005 4:37pm
Thread (disabled) Board
I think I too shall try said material. I like the price being the tightwad I am.

Shiloh