When I got my hotstamped solids from BCC, I mentioned that I "scraped" the chips to remove excess material (flashing) from their faces to clean up the stamp. The goal is to improve the looks of the stamp, eliminate spinners and allow the chips to stack totally solid. I didn't go into great detail at the time, but the question has been asked & I've got some extra time right now to do a quick & dirty tutorial. It should go without saying, but do this at your own risk and be VERY careful; razor blades are sharp!
You will need:
Single-edged razor blades
1 pair of wire cutters (dykes)
2 pair of needle-nosed pliers
Plastic adhesive bandages
Toothbrush (preferably hard or medium bristles)
1. Take your dykes and score the "spine" of your razor blade. It's highly unlikely that you'll be able to snip through the spine, but scoring it in this manner will make it break cleanly instead of simply becoming mangled when you bend it with the pliers.
When you're finished, it should look like this:
2. Using you pliers, firmly grab the spine of your razor blade from each end. Bend the spine of the razor blade. The brittle blade portion will snap immediately, but you may have to bend the spine 2 or three times before it finally snaps in two.
* You'll notice in the above pic that the blade is slightly bent near the break. You'll want to make sure that this little bent edge is curving AWAY from the face of the chip when scraping. If it is facing towards the chip face, the blade will not be as effective and you may scratch the face of the chip. In other words, use the CONVEX side of the blade to scrape so that if the edge is a little bent, it curves "up" and doesn't dig into the face of the chip.
3. Next, trim the ends off a couple of adhesive bandages (as shown) and apply them to one of the halved razor blades. This will keep you from tearing up your fingers and makes the blade more comfortable to grip.
* I marked the "UP" (concave) side of the blade with a black permanent marker to ensure that I am scraping with the convex side.
4. Place the edge of the blade on the face of your chip. Hold the blade at about a 30 degree angle to the chip face and use a moderate but firm pressure. If you've ever shaved an old sticker from a window, it's a lot like that. If you catch a tough spot, don't use more force, just rock the blade until it works its way through. If you push too hard, you risk gouging the face of the chip. After a few chips, you should have the proper angle and amount of pressure mastered. One half-blade should be good for 100 chips or more.
You will need to use your free hand to hold the chip from sliding all over the desk. I was using my free hand to hold the camera.
NOTE: While scraping, the first knuckle on my middle finger would rub against the nice sharp edge of my minty fresh chips. You can wrap a bandage around your finger if this happens to you too.
5. When you've finished scraping both sides, use the toothbrush to brush off any clay shavings. Run your finger across the face of the chip or try to spin it to make sure it's smooth to your satisfaction. This is what the finished chip should look like. Note the nicks on the edge of the inlay area were there when I unboxed the chips and were likely due to BCC's scraping process; they were not my doing.
Here's a shot of the material that was removed from one chip:
Well, there you have it. Anyone who witnesses you doing this will probably think you're insane, but with a little effort and patience, your chips can have 100% clean stamps that are free of flashing and the associated spinning and stacking issues.
Happy scraping.
Your post-scraped BCCs look so clean and sharp. Well done...I'm sure many will make use of this tutorial.
Linear Mode
