'The Great Spandau Mystery' article + Spandau Luger Links

[sheepherder]

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...

In the past, I've bought S&W 659 slide sections with misplaced stamps on the sides...So I would guess that there is some kind of conveyor that transports the part under the roll die...But how is the pressure (many tons, I'm sure) applied??? How do you keep the part from being crushed???

[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.