Synopsis: After a few afternoons with his daughter playing with wood and stamps, Timothy Coleman began to use them to decorate his woodworking projects. He discusses how to create patterns, select wood, and design and make stamps. Coleman works quickly and by eye, spontaneously, with very little marking out. He explains the best woods to use to make stamps, as well as how to make steel stamps, and share his advice on the shapes that produce the best results.

I live in a Massachusetts town that has deep roots in manufacturing, especially in the toolmaking industry. Several years ago I moved my shop to an 1820s brick mill building on the banks of the Green River. Most recently the building was occupied by the Greenfield Steel Stamp Co., a manufacturer of number and letter stamps. The day after the company moved out, I moved in.

While renovating the space, I found steel stamps everywhere: in the cracks of the floor, on window ledges, in abandoned storage shelves. Some were imperfect castoffs; others were in fine condition. Soon I had collected a large box of them. My 3-year-old daughter used the stamps as toys, stacking them like blocks and rattling them in a plastic bucket. I showed her how to hit the stamps with a hammer to make a mark in wood. One day I joined her in playing with them, and it was not long before I was making patterns with the letters and numbers. The patterns were abstract, hieroglyphic, spontaneous and, above all, fun to make. Stamping on wood scraps became part of the daily routine for my daughter and me, and the more we stamped, the more possibilities I saw for stamping on furniture.

There is a rich tradition in furniture making of creating decorative surfaces with marquetry, inlay, carving and patterned veneer. I use them all. But I have learned that each of these techniques demands a great deal of planning and precise work to achieve the desired effect. While I enjoy working this way, I also crave a more spontaneous way of embellishing a surface— one where the planning can happen right on the work. My windfall of steel stamps gave me this freedom. With a few stamps, a small steel hammer and a V-parting tool, I found that I had all I needed to create my own vast catalog of patterns.

From Fine Woodworking #137

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