'The Great Spandau Mystery' article + Spandau Luger Links

[Olle]

Originally Posted by postino

The link to That Other Luger Forum states the die found/noticed in Ohio was a "roll die"...I have no experience with roll dies...Does anyone know how such a setup works??? I'm speaking of a real production roll die procedure, not a basement fabrication...

A roll stamp works very much like a knurler: The pattern is on a roll which is pressed against and rolled across the surface (here's one example: http://columbiamt.com/CMT-Marking-St...lder-Type.html ). The depth of any stamping depends on the pressure you can apply to a certain area, so a roll stamp is typically used for larger stampings (like slide legends) which would require a very high force to apply using a straight stamp. In other words: The roll stamp is a device that allows you to apply enough pressure without squishing the part with the excessive force needed for a straight stamp.

On smaller stampings it would make sense (to me, anyway) to use a straight stamp, but I don't know how to tell which process that was used by just looking at the end result. There may be subtle differences if you study it closely, but again, I sure don't know what it would be.