If you google 'plumber's gasket carving material' you get a lot of references to it. It's also very durable. He's the only person I have ever known to carve on it. If someone else has I've never seen their carves.

I have carved on it once because it was thin enough to wrap around a brayer. It was tough and kind of had a grittiness to it and I'd swear it dulled my tools. I won't be doing it again.

The Woodwhittler used to carve on it with amazing results, though.

I prefer any carving material that has a pre carved image already on it when it arrives in my hands. Usually these days, it's OZ.

Hmmm... it sounds like you like your stamps the same way Sir Braemoor does.

Coincidence... I think not. ;)

eh meh, boxes, in the opinion of Skootch, have the lifespan of a squirrel in the wild. Some get to be old, some not so much. Each one is a wondrous treasure, to be found and appreciated before they vanish into the ether. As much as I love my carvings, setting them free is pretty cool.

...that being said, I'm not carving any more portraits of Gary Oldman, done with that.

I got a slab of 2012 pink stuff for Christmas. It's a bit weird. I was doing an acetone transfer, which seems to soften up the surface even more. Then I was touching it up with a pencil, and the pencil started snagging on the material and pulling up little chunks. I finished with a lighter touch, and that seemed to work ok. But even after a few weeks the surface still feels kind of tacky, and it sticks together if I set another stamp on top of it for a while. I wonder if StazOn would fix the tacky feel.

I've used 2009 pink, but I have improved a lot since then. I did my first knife carve, on a tiger striped paper-mate eraser, and it turned out OK. I just carved two stamps on OZ. One of them was a monogrammed address stamp, and it showed me that all of my other carves were very simple. I think I doubled my skilz on that one stamp.

After watching the Japanese knife carving video, I decided to try their technique of holding the knife at a low angle so that the cuts would cross in the middle of the cut out area. You have to be careful about the depth as you approach other lines, but this technique worked great on OZ. Almost all of the sections just popped out, and it left perfectly smooth areas between the lines. It almost looks manufactured. If you bend the stamp you can see the cuts at the bottom of the valley, on each side. I was very pleased with how it turned out.

-TKV

Nobody here has tried carving on a hockey puck? I once found a stamp carved on one and wondered what tool they used to carve it. The image was pretty rudimentary, so they could've used a nail, for all I know.

I use OZ exclusively, but only because that's what works best for my style of carving. The pink stuff didn't work worth a hill of beans for me, but I've seen amazing works of art on it. To each their own!!

Nobody here has tried carving on a hockey puck?

How did I miss that??
I've carved a flip flop, sink stopper, plumber's gasket, a blank store bought stamp, eraser, and about every carving material out there. But I missed that one!!

I was doing an acetone transfer, which seems to soften up the surface even more.

Acetone will degrade any surface. And rubber is a soft surface. Acetone will take paint off down to the wood. It's heavy duty stuff, not gentle at all.

I rub gently once, see the image appear, *maybe* rub again gently, depending on the image. Then I let it sit for quite a while after peeling off the paper before I touch the surface of the pink stuff for any reason. Sometimes I won't even come back to it until the next day. The pink stuff has to kind of recover.

If you try it and it works out, I want credit for being your muse! ;^)

We have found half a hockey puck carved, it really didn't stamp all too well, though.

We have found half a hockey puck carved

Yeah, that was probably the one I found! I think it was in RI?

That's the one! :)