Fixing Hot Stamps (1 Viewer)

juankay20

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Has anyone attempted or know how to fix hot stamps on chips?

Seems like there are some interesting hot stamp chips out there where the foil is either partially faded, severely damaged, or completely gone. Instead of milling these chips, I was wondering if anyone has some experience working with or fixing hot stamped chips - and if it's worth trying to re-foiling them. Would be great to recondition some of these gems.
(I've already used the Search option here and tried researching some possible ways to fix hot stamps - but there doesn't seem to be any info out there that's helpful. If I missed an old thread that was posted here, please let me know.)

Thanks.
 
The best I know, you aren't fixing anything to do with hot stamps. Even cleaning them is not easy, you have to be very careful.

Hot stamping is more of an art than a science. Even so, I doubt you can restamp a hot stamped chip.

Basically you will need to grind / mill to remove the old stamp making way for a new. And even that isn't a sure thing. There is only so much material in the thickness of a chip. Thin is not so good for hot stamping. It is a harsh process - you can get cracks, or even total failure broken chips.

All this is to say, "tread carefully", Maybe a set with faded or damaged stamps will work out ok. And if not, perhaps labels are a better way to go.

I have thousands of these sorts of chips from the El Rancho in Vegas. One of my "someday" < labels > projects when I have the time and money.

DrStrange
 
Someone did this with a fine point gold paint marker back in the ChipTalk days. The pictures made it look great. The depth of the stamp was still pretty clean, and lines were mostly straight and fine, so there didn't seem to be a lot of difficult areas to "colour in" or swooping curves.

That's all I can remember. I think maybe only one or two were done and the thread was presented with a close-up photo of the chip with a "how did I do this?" sort of title. Everyone was surprised when the technique was revealed. General reaction was positive.
 
Has anyone attempted or know how to fix hot stamps on chips?
No, but I'm watching this thread with interest. I have a small set of used hotstamps where the hotstamp is completely worn away. I've thought about the gold paint marker approach myself. But I never tried it.

It would seem possible with large numbers & fonts, but specialized or tiny print might not be possible. For example, on the Casino Micasa chips below (just found a random example on the ChipGuide), the denom may be able to be easily refoiled markered in, but the casino text and Micasa would seem to be a pain

I've even watched a few videos of gold marker reviews on youtube. Some are paint pens, some are markers. I do have a medium or "fine" Sharpie metallic gold marker (not the paint pen, but just the marker) but even the tip of that marker seems too wide to easily fit in the width of the denom numbering. But some of the the videos I found showed a few art markers with skinnier tips.

41043.jpg
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Has anyone attempted or know how to fix hot stamps on chips?

Seems like there are some interesting hot stamp chips out there where the foil is either partially faded, severely damaged, or completely gone. Instead of milling these chips, I was wondering if anyone has some experience working with or fixing hot stamped chips - and if it's worth trying to re-foiling them. Would be great to recondition some of these gems.
(I've already used the Search option here and tried researching some possible ways to fix hot stamps - but there doesn't seem to be any info out there that's helpful. If I missed an old thread that was posted here, please let me know.)

Thanks.
I would say, it's going to be a risky venture. Just from seeing spinners from a standard chip, and from seeing just how deep you might have to go to remove that hot stamp... I think you'd be getting spinners galore there. Each hot stamp can be a little different, so I'd expect a certain rate of reject from breakage during stamping too.
 
@AWenger I think you’ll be right about the fine lettering - the set of foil pens I picked up does come with a fine point tip, so we’ll see how fine it actually is.
@Josh Kifer I’m going to attempt to restore just the foiling for now, so my hope is that the original stamp is deep enough to take re-foiling. Definitely will be challenging though
 
I've thought about trying those metallic gold leafing paint pens on them but haven't ever tried it. Maybe something like this would work? But you'd have to be super careful. The tip on these is pretty wide. They basically drip gold metallic paint down to the tip. I would probably get a really fine paint brush and try to steal the gold paint off the tip of this pen and use that on the chip instead. Good luck!

https://www.amazon.com/Krylon-Diver...afing+pen&qid=1590561249&s=arts-crafts&sr=1-1

1590561428610.png
 
Maybe there's hope for those chips with deep and defined stamps:
https://www.amazon.com/We-Memory-Ke...il+Quill+Freestyle+Pens&qid=1590422550&sr=8-2

https://www.amazon.com/Quill-Freest...il+Quill+Freestyle+Pens&qid=1590422550&sr=8-5

Just ordered the fine tip pen and will try experimenting on some... I'll post updates when possible - for better or worse :bag:

From the reviews it appears you place the foil over the object and then trace the design on. Might make it hard to see what you are doing
Quote from review

“This is a fun craft hot foil hand lettering tool, to be used with a hot foil sheet. Write or draw something out on a piece of paper or sheer tracing paper. When done, put it aside.
Prep your work. This is the order:
Place the cardstock, leather, journal or felt fabric on a flat surface on the bottom (this is the surface where you want the hot foil written/drawn on)
Secure with removable tape.
Place a hot foil sheet on top of it. Secure with removable tape.
Now place your drawn or scripted sheet of paper on top of the foil sheet. Secure with removable tape.
Use the hot foil pen to trace over your drawing/lettering (avoid shifting). Have fun!“
 
I've done it with a fine tipped metallic gold sharpie. Just experimented with a couple chips a while back. It was a bit too tedious for me and I quickly lost interest in the project. Here are a few examples...



 
From the reviews it appears you place the foil over the object and then trace the design on. Might make it hard to see what you are doing
Quote from review

“This is a fun craft hot foil hand lettering tool, to be used with a hot foil sheet. Write or draw something out on a piece of paper or sheer tracing paper. When done, put it aside.
Prep your work. This is the order:
Place the cardstock, leather, journal or felt fabric on a flat surface on the bottom (this is the surface where you want the hot foil written/drawn on)
Secure with removable tape.
Place a hot foil sheet on top of it. Secure with removable tape.
Now place your drawn or scripted sheet of paper on top of the foil sheet. Secure with removable tape.
Use the hot foil pen to trace over your drawing/lettering (avoid shifting). Have fun!“


Does seem like the pens are a little bulky towards the tip, so my hope is that the grooves of the hotstamp would be deep enough to maybe freehand the lines with some help from a tracing.
 
I've done it with a fine tipped metallic gold sharpie. Just experimented with a couple chips a while back. It was a bit too tedious for me and I quickly lost interest in the project. Here are a few examples...





Those came out pretty good!
 
So an idea from left field- a lot of golf clubs get stamped and paint filled. Link to a process, including using a needle- tipped dropper bottle or syringe for the paint fill. Paint then runs along the stamp rather than having to precisely fill in with a marker. Plenty of metallic paints available as well.
https://golf.com/gear/how-customize-golf-clubs-new-paint-fill-few-easy-steps/
 
So an idea from left field- a lot of golf clubs get stamped and paint filled. Link to a process, including using a needle- tipped dropper bottle or syringe for the paint fill. Paint then runs along the stamp rather than having to precisely fill in with a marker. Plenty of metallic paints available as well.
https://golf.com/gear/how-customize-golf-clubs-new-paint-fill-few-easy-steps/
The danger I see is that any paint that needs acetone clean-up is solvent based. It’s likely to eat at the chip and make a melted plastic gooey mess.
 
That's a good point. In club stamping and filling the acetone is used more for removing the existing paint fill than anything else, which wouldn't really be the case here.

I have no idea why I stumbled on to this thread- I don't even have any hot stamps I'm looking to refresh- but now I'm just curious. I have the supplies from the golf side of things and will scrounge up some hot stamps if I can to try 1. With acetone and what happens 2. Without acetone- can usually wipe clean without while the paint is still wet no problem, but possibly not with porous surface like clay 3. With a nail polish that would be less resilient, but could be refreshed easier and excess/ mistakes fixed with non-acetone cleaner without harm a la inlay removal, but being in the recess should stand up to home use fairly well?

Regardless, I think the needle method would be more accurate and less error prone than a marker type solution.
 
Works good on 7 golf clubs, how about 2000 sides of a poker chip like this


That's a good point. In club stamping and filling the acetone is used more for removing the existing paint fill than anything else, which wouldn't really be the case here.

I have no idea why I stumbled on to this thread- I don't even have any hot stamps I'm looking to refresh- but now I'm just curious. I have the supplies from the golf side of things and will scrounge up some hot stamps if I can to try 1. With acetone and what happens 2. Without acetone- can usually wipe clean without while the paint is still wet no problem, but possibly not with porous surface like clay 3. With a nail polish that would be less resilient, but could be refreshed easier and excess/ mistakes fixed with non-acetone cleaner without harm a la inlay removal, but being in the recess should stand up to home use fairly well?

Regardless, I think the needle method would be more accurate and less error prone than a marker type solution.
9746BD28-97D8-4355-AAD9-5B781F948A49.jpeg
 
Works good on 7 golf clubs, how about 2000 sides of a poker chip like this



View attachment 638439
Haha totally agree. I think it would be a royal pain in the ass and have no desire to do so. Like I said- I don't even know how I stumbled on this thread. But now I'm just curious, and don't think it would take longer than the sharpie options mentioned above
 
To clarify- I'm not advocating this approach. Have never even tried it. Just stumbled onto the thread and had a thought out of left field. I wouldn't want to, but if someone is going to do this, might as well use the best of the sucky tools available, which I have a hunch the needle might be? :unsure: So, science....
 
Nice. Now I have questions lol.

-Estimate how long would 1 barrel take?
Tell me this 1 chip did not take 2 weeks lol

-Any chance this moves from the indent to chip surface? From shuffling, splashing pots etc.

-How about thinner lines? Some stamp denoms are maybe 1/3 the width of this chip.

-what's the process?
 
I’m still working on the process, but this was done with gold leafing paint and a toothpick.

I think the trick to keeping the leafing from coming off is making sure everything is good and dry, but the paint is a water-based enamel. I’m going to do a few and put them in shuffle stacks.

In theory, you can make thinner lines by sanding the point of the toothpick to a finer point, but I’m hitting the limit of how steady I can hold my hands. I’m going to look at using wooden skewers so that I can hold them more steadily.

The process isn’t fast, but it isn’t ridiculously slow. I also assume it’ll get faster as I practice. But more intricate stamps take longer. I *think* it’ll probably get to about a barrel an hour, or about 90 seconds per side.

I’ll keep y’all posted on my progress.
 
I would think that a toothpick would tend to make the paint blob up on the end. An extremely thin brush, with a minimal amount of bristles... would work better, I would guess.
That and some good lighted magnification.
 
I tried a 000 size brush (smallest I could find) that is sometimes used by nail salons for nail art. It was harder to control. With the toothpick (an idea I stole from artists who customize sneakers) you get no fanning at all. You do have to be careful about paint load, only dipping the very tip and removing any excess.
 
I tried a 000 size brush (smallest I could find) that is sometimes used by nail salons for nail art. It was harder to control. With the toothpick (an idea I stole from artists who customize sneakers) you get no fanning at all. You do have to be careful about paint load, only dipping the very tip and removing any excess.
You may be able to get a better shape from that brush by trimming not only the width, but trimming the length so it’s stubby like a blunt toothpick but still can wick some paint. Just a thought...
 

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