When I tried to use heat on the pink stuff, the rubber started to fall apart.

Simple answer I believe of too much heat. Heat setting should be about less than half of what it's capable. I just transferred 3 images on pink stuff this morning. Heat setting at 3. When you peel back paper to peek sometimes it looks real faint and only seconds later it's perfect transfer. Keep peeking and you shouldn't melt material.

I used an image from my ink printer

From your ink jet printer? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting a transfer from heat/acetone/xylene from an ink jet, just the toner ones.

I think ink jet = parchment transfers, but never have used that technique myself.

Exactly what Bumble said.
You cannot do a heat transfer from an ink jet printer. You can either make a copy using a copier..the older the better. Or, you can print on a laser printer. That is what I do at home. I have an older laser printer that I bought online from staples on clearance. The toner cartridge is costly, but I only have to replace it about once a year. It prints about 6000 pages per cartridge. Since laser toner is applied to the paper using a heat process, it transfer to rubber nicely.
I have noticed though, that it takes a much lighter touch to transfer to pink stuff. It is softer by nature, and melts easily. I lower my iron temperature, am careful not to press on the edges as I iron, and check after just a few seconds.
PZ and OZ take a little higher heat and a little longer time. The image isn't "black", but more of a dark purplish color....

I think ink jet = parchment transfers, but never have used that technique myself.

I've tried parchment, but prefer transparencies. (Think overhead projector sheets.) The clear sheet makes it very easy to see where on your carving material the image is going, and what areas have already transferred properly.

With this method, you have to reduce the amount of ink your printer is putting out - the amount used for regular paper printing just runs together and turns into a big nasty blob. Your word processor should let you set the transparency of the image, 60% transparent works well for me.

You cannot do a heat transfer from an ink jet printer

Ok. That explains it. Thank you.

What would people recommond in my case, pencil transfers, transparencies or just stick to the pink stuff. I have plenty of acetone.

Pink stuff is like cutting jello compared to OZ.

Wait..... what? ;)

For knife carving, I would have to say I actually prefer FirmKut over OZ (never thought I'd say that!). I actually break more knife tips with OZ.

Either one is WAY firmer than pink stuff.

GJ

Use parchment paper cut to size and taped down to a piece of cardstock. Print your image (make sure you reduce the transparency so that you don't use so much ink, the design should be a light to medium grey), then immediately put the design side down on your rubber and gently press. The ink should transfer to the rubber. Also, another good tip is to stamp yellow or another light colored Staz On over the transfer before you begin carving. That seals your transfer and prevents smearing.

For knife carving, I would have to say I actually prefer FirmKut over OZ

I consider myself primarily a knife carver, but wound up shifting more and more back to gouges when I tried FirmKut. Right now OZ is my preference by a considerable margin. (I'm still watching for Orange to come back!)

But the first time I tried OZ, it seemed pretty tough and took a lot of effort to start a cut. I mentioned that to another (much more prolific) carver, who said they were not having any problems like that at all. Turned out she always does surface prep with a light sanding, while I had been using an acetone wipe.

My current project is on OZ, started with a light sanding, and it seems to be cutting extremely well. Maybe the difference is in my imagination?

it seemed pretty tough and took a lot of effort to start a cut.

It's tougher to start a cut and to pull out pieces in OZ over FirmKut. I find it easier to carve in OZ if I begin the carving immediately after the acetone transfer, when the rubber is softened slightly.

OZ is perfect for the gouge carver, though.

GJ

I find it easier to carve in OZ if I begin the carving immediately after the acetone transfer,

That could explain why we are getting different impressions, I've never gotten an acetone transfer to work right. Pencil tracings and printing on transparency sheets are my preferred transfer methods right now.

In either case, I would do an acetone scrub on the surface before doing the transfer. Both methods seemed to give a sharper transfer immediately after the scrub, but then I always let it set for a while to avoid smudging the image.

That makes sense I had asked the lady at the craft store if it would work like the pink stuff and she had said it would "last longer" bc of its hardness. So naturally I was very enthusiastic to try it out. But I guess she saw me coming or just didn't realize what she was talking about. Either way I learned my lesson. I always use the pink stuff now and I 've also carved a few stamps with the very flexible gray stuff (I don't know what that is called either) and it seems to be ok for small, simple carvings but larger carvings I believe I will have to back with wood since it is so flexible. thank you for your help :)

Huh.

i love OZ and i'm a knife carver too. i'm not getting the same results GJ. how strange. Maybe it's just a difference in technique, but i had such a hard time with FirmKut that i simply threw my piece away after 3 ruined stamps. serious frustration.

~tigs

i had such a hard time with FirmKut that i simply threw my piece away after 3 ruined stamps

It took me a good 25 stamps in FirmKut before I figured out how to carve in it well. I've carved about 20 stamps in OZ so far, and definitely can get better detail and less drag cutting in FirmKut.

I use Excel blades, which are thinner than x-acto ones.... I suspect if I used x-acto, I wouldn't get the broken tips as much. But then I'd lose the advantage the thinner blades offer. Not worth the trade-off.

I don't get as tired carving in OZ, but have more trouble pulling out pieces. The elasticity of FirmKut made it so I could pull out full pieces....the OZ breaks and I'm pulling out multiple parts of one long piece. Ugh.

And my blades get duller much faster using OZ than FirmKut.

What I really want is Orange back. :(

GJ

What I really want is Orange back. :(

I'm working on it. :) It won't be (can't be, since the regulation changes of a few years back) quite the same as the original orange, but I'm trying to address the knife carving issues specifically with the orange formulation. Somewhere in the next few weeks, there will be samples in my hot little webbed feet....

Webfoot

I've never carved on PZ Orange. How was it different from PZ, other than color?

I still miss PZ, but I'm learning to carve on OZ with fewer tantrums. Short, shallow gauge strokes.

Great feedback, everyone! Thank you so much for your thoughts and comparisons. :-D

I use one of Kirbert's reverse Staedtlers. I'm carving letters with it now! :)

What the heck is a reverse Staedtler?

What the heck is a reverse Staedtler?

A Reltdeats?

xD

All this info has me feeling like I need to go back to the drawing, er, carving board. I've never carved OZ, I've never (that I know of) carved FirmKut, and all the great advice about transfer has not worked for me. If I could just get that worked out, I'd feel a lot better about my carving. I've been avoiding carving for a while now. One thing I wanted to say about PZ Orange, which I have really liked, is that because it was translucent, I could put it on my lightbox to carve, and it was much easier to tell where I had carved versus where I hadn't, with the illumination. That was awesome.

Thinking I need to order some stuff, aT

Staedtler, reversed.

I've never carved on PZ Orange. How was it different from PZ, other than color?

I only tried PZ White a couple of times, and it was with almost no experience carving - so take this with a large grain of salt.

The biggest difference I noticed was in the PZ White being significantly more opaque. Given the semi-transparency in the Orange, a knife cut just looked different from the material around it. It was easy to tell the location of the cut and how deep it was going. That was a big help in controlling depth of cut.

That's for a knife cut. For gouge carvers, I don't remember anyone ever saying they found a significant advantage in it.

Just recently, I've started to notice that the pink stuff shows a little bit of that same effect. At least on shallow cuts.

Completely different animal, IMHO. To me, PZ Kut white was very similar to pink stuff only stiffer. PZ Kut orange was completely different, almost as though you were cutting wax instead of rubber. It was incredibly firm -- in fact, arguably too firm for images with broad expanses of solid black -- yet a knife slid through it with the greatest of ease as though it had a built-in lubricant. You could cut the tiniest detail and still get a smooth cut, as opposed to the way pink stuff sometimes gets ragged around tiny cuts. The orange color was a key feature, as whenever you sliced it with a knife the area would glow much brighter orange, clearly indicating where you have cut and where you haven't cut yet. I've since noticed that pink stuff does this too, just to a much less noticeable extent.

opposed to the way pink stuff sometimes gets ragged around tiny cuts

Thank you for mentioning this. Now that I have new glasses, I'm really starting to notice the ragged edges and they are driving me crazy!

I have had access to only pink stuff for a long, long time. Thanks to a few folks here on AQ, I've been able to sample the firmer types of white and I am noticing some of the exact same differences that have been mentioned here with the tools. Good to know it's not just me. :)

As soon as I can get images to transfer to the other three pieces, I will have a nice set of samples to keep as PT's. All the images were made from the same type of design using the same tools, sharped before each carve. It's been a really fun experiment. Anyone have a list of all the mediums so I can double check to see what else I need to add to the group?

I hated it for knife carving, but I adapted fairly well when I went back to gouging, where it's easier to get crisp lines and fine details. It resists well enough that I don't usually accidentally cut back into my already-cut lines, a pet peeve of mine and a constant problem for me. It works me way harder than either the pink stuff or PZ. I'll probably get more, but would really like to go back to my knife. Maybe the orange stuff. . .

I printed a detailed picture on my inkjet & immediately rubbed it onto the pink stuff (I think) & it transferred perfectly. A lot better imprinting than tracing which I had been doing.

A lot better imprinting than tracing which I had been doing.

Agree, as carve can only be as good as the transfer.

It was incredibly firm -- in fact, arguably too firm for images with broad expanses of solid black -- yet a knife slid through it with the greatest of ease as though it had a built-in lubricant.

Knife carver porn.

Oh, my.

GJ

Knife carver porn.

That's exactly the thought that crossed my mind when I read his post... Jeez, Kirbert, would you like us all to leave you alone with that slab of orange?

You can say or think what you will about me if you want -- if you'll send me a slab of orange! I've been out for a coupla years now.