Per how Zilgen did it, looking at mine appears to be a very thin sharp stamp. Would not need to hit that very hard. Spendy to have such a thing made.

Creighton

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiDrypPeb8k"]Making the Bosphorus Master - YouTube[/ame]

Here's 50 min of Bosphorus cymbal smith goodness. And at 47 min shows the ink stamp size and about 48-9 min the metal stamp. Which is a electric stamping press. Cymbal is way cool temp wise by this time. Amazing the hand hammering process and lathing they do. Old skool for sure! Not sure of this answers the initial stamp question but does confirm the metal stamp in this case is done by automatic stamping press, Twice! Very last the silk screen logos. Cool video if you have 50 min. Coffee Break2

Johnny..asking again..did you hear from my friend Tim...with the BR stamped cymbal?

I lost his name when I cleared out my messages.

I presume you didn't read that on a current version of Cymbalholic, Blair? I certainly know of contrary evidence because the stamping wasn't done "hot" at Zildjian.

Yes we have some examples of Zildjian cymbals cracking right on where the die stamp is pressed in. In particular Large Stamps seem to be the most problematic. Mike Layton has one or more of these.

But it isn't true in general that putting a die stamp on is "hot" work as opposed to "cold" work. The die stamp was put on when an order was filled, and a cymbal was retrieved from the vault to fill the order. This could be up to several years after the cymbal was made. The die stamp was pressed in using a powered stamping machine, not by somebody hitting it with a hammer (certainly by the 60s which is the time Leon Chiappini was discussing).

There were three stamping machines spread around the vault so that when multiple testers were filling three orders they didn't have to queue up to use the same one. Note that also implies there were multiple die stamps in use at the same time. The different die stamps may have been "nearly identical" (except they were themselves hand made and might have small variations) or they could be quite distinct (for example the two different heights of 1960s stamp which could have been in use on the same day in the factory). This is one reason why die stamps don't line up exactly with production era or ink (which also went on at time of shipping). The other reason for lack of perfect alignment of production era and die stamp is the sometimes several years spent in the vault until a cymbal was chosen to fill an order.

Note that in the 30s and early 40s it looks like they might have been using a hammer to put the stamp in, based on the number of faulty strikings. We don't yet know when the specific stamping machine was first introduced. Jeansonne 2000 or later? (link available on my web site in the top of the gallery page) describes it, but doesn't give a year for introduction. Note that we've moved on a ways since the Jeansonne article was published, and some of the terminology reported there is a bit dated.

It is quite possible for anybody with the right tools to do their own stamp work, but you do have a low risk of cracking a cymbal outright or introducing a shock which later manifests in a crack.