Very rough... very rough indeed. One of them had huge gouges out the back of it Generally, to make our granules, we buy large (12 - 15kg) bars from BHAS or the 32kg bars from Penjoles and then melt them ourselves. We then sift them here at the office to get rid of the tiny granules (I get to do that usually). Also, my username is taken from my real name
Awesome bars SA@YPS. Where did you get the stamp? I really like the look of the first bar with the ripples.
These bars are great, Ive seen em for sale Before I think? Top one is the best for sure nice pour ripples. good stuff
I had EverStamp make the stamp. They have a store on eBay http://stores.ebay.com/EverStamp-Steel-Marking-Stamps I make some of what i call "shockwave" bars. I stamp them on the bottom so not to mess up the waves.
Awesome idea to stamp the bottom, I Looooove the ripples. You get a big premium for these bars? What size stamp did you get? 1/18th?
The ones I have sold on eBay went for $100/ea BIN. The ones I have sold at the other site have been getting around a $15 premium per bar. Lettering is 1/8" Once I make another batch, i'll probably drop the eBay price down some to sell more there.
I was looking at the stamps and i couldnt help but think thats rather expensive unless you're going to make lots of bars and make up in premiums..... Would I be able to just use some form of tiny chisel instead? As silver is so soft i assume it would work (albeit a bit crude)
An option to buying stamps or a chisel in a pinch would be to make your own. If you have access to a bench grinder and 5/16" or 1/4" inch mild steel rounds say about 5" long you could grind points, square, round, or chisel ends on them. If you want to get a little more creative heat the steel with a torch and use a hammer to forge the ends to a rough shape, then grind and polish the business end to the shape you desire. You can practice and test out the tool in a chunk of lead. The tool may only last for a few uses but it could get you through. Just wash the hands after playing with the lead.
I found stamping very difficult to get to a standard I liked with singular letter stamps. If I was to make more id Invest in a Nice straight word stamp like SA@YPS did. Makes for a Nice clean professional finish and its easy to stuff up the stamping on a bar with singles, Not only that the stamps can be used a heap of times. To make a stamp/part of letters on a grinder would be very time consuming and difficult at this kind of scale and then would only last a few stamps????lol! And I couldn't see the standard of a home made stamp coming close to that of these custom stamps. just my 2 cents =)
Not to mention for those who dont have the use for such equipment regularly very costly which is what i must avoid due to lack of funds lol
The stamp ran me $200. So if i'm able to get a $10 premium per bar, it only takes me 20 to make it up. I have other costs as well, but I've been getting $15+ premium and have sold over 50 so far. Sounds like a lot of time and very little reward. I guess if someone was unemployed or retired, it might make sense. Also, once you got it made, would probably make sense to have it hardened so it lasts more than a couple pieces.
If anyone is interested in one of these, I have 3 up for auction on another site other than eBay (2 shockwaves and 1 classic). The auctions Monday night starting at 10 pm Eastern standard time. Think that is sometime around noon Tuesday for you guys in Australia. I don't have any issues with shipping, and gladly take PPG if you pay the currency conversion. If interested, let me know via PM and I will send you the links later today.