A pair of sterling silver bangles stamped with a couple of what I now call the “original” series of stamps my brother and I made from old bolts back in the early-mid ’70’s.
We used them for making southwest-style silver work. They sorely needed refurbishing to be usable again, as 40+ years of rattling around in a tin can at the bottom of a box of tools had taken it’s toll.
To get the stamps in working order again, I cut off the bolt heads (not sure why we didn’t do that when they were first made, other than perhaps having to deal with a dull hack-saw blade), re-annealed and cleaned them up with a bit of filing and sanding to bring them back into shape by taking out the nicks, deepening the grooves, etc.
I then followed that by hardening, tempering and final polish and buff of the working-end. Used together or with common punches, simple designs really are easy to work up.
One bangle was stamped with a southwest-style design, and the other used a portion of another stamp to create a pine needle design of sorts.
Both bangles had their designs stamped only four times around the circumference, and because they’re made with 8 ga. half-round wire, they make for a simple, light and non-intrusive bangle that can stacked and mixed with others to blend with numerous styles of dress. 🙂