Looking for metal stamps

Does anyone know where I can buy metal stamps with the shape of the
suits of playing cards (heart , spade, diamond & club)? I have tried
some of the bigger operations such as Rio & IJS but neither of them.

Thanks,
Lee

Stamps!!
youll need to be a lot more specific about your needs before you use
stamps.
you will need to specify
1. the size and depth(height of relief) of the finished item,
2. the material and thickness you plan to stamp in,
3. wether you want both a male and female to stamp the metal in between,
4. what means of alignment and tool support you need, fly press tonnage
5. how many you plan to stamp,
6. how you plan to cut out the shapes after stamping.
what you need to do is give us the answers to the above, and well point
you in the right direction.
Im a stamper as well as a silversmith and know where to go to get the
tooling made. Thats in the UK.

You're right, there are a lot of parameters to deal with. What I was
looking for are simple small hand held stamps with the desired pattern
about 5mm or so. The depth is not critical, I would guess that they
are around .25mm. What I had in my mind was one where the pattern is
pushed into the metal much like a typical 14k stamp would be on a
piece of jewelry . These would be used to accent pieces if jewelry,
mostly silver, some gold.

I know that I can have these custom made for probably 75.00-100.00,
but thought that being rather common patterns that they would be "off
the shelf" like the hundreds of Southwestern patterns out there

Thanks,
Lee.

On Fri, 21 May 2004 08:29:38 GMT, "ted.frater"
wrote:

Stamps!!
youll need to be a lot more specific about your needs before you use
stamps.
you will need to specify
1. the size and depth(height of relief) of the finished item,
2. the material and thickness you plan to stamp in,
3. wether you want both a male and female to stamp the metal in between,
4. what means of alignment and tool support you need, fly press tonnage
5. how many you plan to stamp,
6. how you plan to cut out the shapes after stamping.
what you need to do is give us the answers to the above, and well point
you in the right direction.
Im a stamper as well as a silversmith and know where to go to get the
tooling made. Thats in the UK.

Ahaaa.... Now were getting somewhere,
what you need are as you say small hand stamps, to get these to put
say an outline into metal, youll need to get them cut whats called in
the trade, skeleton form.
now Ive actually made lots of these out of old cold chisels. First you
file up the outside to get the shape you want, then with a hand held
drill you take out the inside of the design to leave the shape you want
like a chisel. You have of course to soften the punch first then
harden and temper after.
If you make your own youll feel very pleased with yourself.
You could of course get them made by a die/punch maker.
Theres plenty about over here in the UK. In your neck of the woods youll
have to ask Abrasha on this news group very nicely and he might just
point you in the right direction.
Let us know how you get on.