Carving, carving, carving... {SPOILERS}

Ahoy!  I've been having a great, but busy, summer so far and I'm really looking forward to the end of August because I've got some time off and am doing a staycation.  Need to get out there and do some letterboxing during that time,  methinks ;)

One of the things I've been working on is helping Bon Echo with some stamps for Box ON! Stoney Creek. {You should come!  For anyone reading this who doesn't know where Stoney Creek is, it's just a short drive from the US border if anyone wanted to make the trek}  And one of the stamps I just finished is the event stamp...  Read on if you don't mind being spoiled ;)

Carving Material Review: Daiso's Eraser Stamp

This carving material review post comes once again from the lovely people in Japan, who clearly know what they're about when it comes to stamp carving.

I stumbled across this particular carving medium while searching broadly for any kind of carving material that might be out there in the world.

Daiso itself is a fairly popular 100 yen store and has brick and mortar shops in Asia, as well as Australia and the west coast of the US.  They also have an online presence for the US here. In essence, they are a dollar store which happened to carry a Daiso-branded carving eraser material.  I mean, how good could it be? My expectations were quite low for this stuff, but I did want to try it for the purposes of this blog.

You won't find this stuff for sale online in their web store.  If you Google "Daiso eraser stamp" you'll find some great English blogs talking about stamp carving and such, but you'll notice they just drop off around 2013.  I *think* this was a temporary offering by Daiso, and I believe they discontinued it sometime around that period.

Having said that, slabs still exist, but they are hard to find and will slowly disappear.  This obviously has a consequence for trying to get this stuff.  So, originally, at 100 yen, you're looking at a cost of C$1.24 or U$0.95.  Keep in mind, the block is not 4x6", rather about half that size.  However, at that price it's pretty great!  Things are never so simple though: because it's no longer being made, you will only find this by resellers and you need to pay for shipping.  As of writing this, I could not find any on eBay and the only people selling it are on Etsy, at around C$5 per slab plus shipping.  Um. Yeah.

Is it worth it?

Carving Material Review: Butter Kut from Stampeaz

Butter Kut from Stampeaz

By popular request, my next review is of Butter Kut, a material that appears on Stampeaz.  I'm not clear if Stampeaz makes it or if they just carry it as part of their offerings, like Speedy Carve.

(If you want a particular medium reviewed, feel free to send me an email or put it in the comments below - otherwise, I'll just keep going through the materials as I pull them out of my drawer.)

The price isn't too bad for the size of the sheet, although I'm skewed because of the shipping charges.  But heck, I'm a hussy for carving mediums, I'll try anything ;)

My first thought when it arrived was to be taken aback at how thin it is.  I'm so used to all of the other white materials that come out of Stampeaz's shop, that it never occurred to me that it would be any different...  On to the review!

Carving Material Review: Unnamed Chinese Carving Material (SLQ)

Solid coloured carving material

So, this continues a series of posts on all of the different carving materials I can find that can be used for stamp carving.  If you want to see how each stacks up against the other, you can check out this comparison chart.

Like the sandwich-style material, this slab comes from China with no real explanation of who makes it or any other sort of brand info.  If you're a letterboxer, you may have seen on the AQ forums this referred to as SLQ, referring to the Etsy/eBay name of a user that was initially selling it, SweetLoveQiner.

To be honest, having searched the breadth and depths of various sites for importing this kind of thing from Asia, I think both this and all the other similar solid colour listings each come from the same factory and are essentially the same.  Same goes for the sandwich style stuff.  I haven't been finding great prices, but if I do, I will definitely be buying...  cuz this stuff is great.

Either this is close scrutiny or napping.

Carving Material Review: Firm Kut by Stampeaz

Firm Kut by Stampeaz

Back to a real stamp carving material, fingers intact.

If you're not familiar, Firm Kut is actually a carving material that came into existence just after I started carving.  I never did get to try either of the PZ Kut materials, which disappeared before I started carving, but Firm Kut is (was?) Stampeaz's first foray into trying to recreate the material that everyone seemed to love.

Now, right off the bat, there were concerns that this first formulation was too hard to carve.  If my recollection is correct, that is how it took on the name of "Firm".

I remember agreeing that it was too hard, and was happy when Stampeaz came out with its next formulations (MZ Kut, then NZ Kut), so I gave this one up quite quickly.  I ordered this slab a couple months ago for the specific purpose of including it in my reviews, but going back to the Stampeaz site, it looks like it may have gone way of the dodo.  The cost was comparable to the other Stampeaz house forumlations, but other than for the purpose of this review, I wouldn't try to track any down ;)

Carving Material "Review": Jack Richeson's Easy-to-Cut Lino

Easy-to-Cut Lino by Jack Richeson

The good news is that I'm up to date on my tetanus shots.

Carving Material Review: Moo Carve by NCTC Inc.

Moo Carve carving material

Happy Canada Day! Just a reminder: for all of my carving material review posts, I've been adding all of the results in a summary format - and ranked in terms of my preference - in the "Stamp Carving Material Comparison" link on the right side of my page.

My next review is finally of the Moo Carve that has been sitting on my desk for a while.  This Korean carving material has some pretty nice reviews online, but one that alarmed me: that it was just like Staedtler's now-discontinued Mastercarve.  I couldn't stand that stuff, it was like carving a big stale marshmallow.  Ick.  As a result, I've never actually used this stuff before.

Unlike some of the other carving material from Asia, this one is actually fairly available in North America.  You can buy this at some US-based craft or art supply places, and pretty frequently it is available on Amazon or other places online.  Having said that, I think the cost has already been built in, because this stuff is fairly pricey.