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Making A Brass Finishing Tool - Part 1

Using only hand tools, I take a piece of scrap brass and transform it into a finishing gouge, a curved-line stamp for embossing leather. Commercially available brass stamps, even second-hand ones, are well outside my budget, especially since I am hardly better than a novice at leather tooling and can’t justify laying out hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for a set. Instead, to dip my toe into the craft and see what I can make of it, I have set out to make my own simple stamps, using scrap brass and everyday metalworking tools. Brass finishing tools are used in the final stages of binding a book (technically the binding is already done and the whole tooling stage is called 'finishing'), in which the leather covers are impressed with a variety of designs or text. The letters and patterns can be stamped 'blind' without any additional coloring, or embellished with carbon black, colored foils, or gold leaf. While many finishing tools are both elaborate and intricate, simple geometric s

English
  • Originally Aired March 13, 2021
  • Runtime 10 minutes
  • Created June 25, 2025 by
    Fusto
  • Modified June 25, 2025 by
    Fusto