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Home About Us Latest News GT SCHMIDT History: Steel Stamps

GT SCHMIDT History: Steel Stamps

GT SCHMIDT first opened its doors in 1895 manufacturing a variety of steel stamps, dies and marking devices. Thanks to the supreme quality, distinguished craftsmanship, and the dedication to great service, the company quickly established itself as a leader in the engraving business.

GT SCHMIDT invested in higher-quality steel and modern scientific instruments that allowed them to manufacture harder, longer-lasting steel stamps than their competition. GT SCHMIDT also offered a wide variety of these hand stamps, providing their customers with several simple and durable options to mark their products.

(All images come from GT SCHMIDT’s Marking Tools and Equipment Catalog Number 8, published in 1925).

Hi-Duty Letter and Figure Steel Stamps

These stamps featured a single letter or number on each stamp and were often sold in complete sets (A-Z and 0-9). Though marking each individual letter and number separately was time consuming, this process was ideal for people who constantly changed the information they were marking.

There are more modern ways to mark parts today, but these stamps remain a popular method of marking. GT SCHMIDT still manufactures individual and compete sets of letter and figure steel hand stamps today.

Custom Steel Hand Stamps

For customers that needed to mark the same information repeatedly, such as a company’s name, custom steel hand stamps were manufactured. This also allowed for the stamps’ character depth and alignment to be much more consistent. Custom stamps also allowed for the engraving of logos and simple images that the figure and letters stamps were not able to provide.

Hammer Stamps

Hammer stamps cut out the middleman so-to-speak. Instead of hammering a stamp to mark a character, the character was engraved directly on the hammer which was then used to strike the part to be marked directly. These were often used on timber, steel, and other metals.

GT SCHMIDT went beyond traditional-looking hammers and developed hammer stamps that were unique to specific marking applications. In one example, GT SCHMIDT made a steel hammer stamp specifically for marking railroad ties. Previously, tie inspectors would carry six different hammer stamps with them, each with a different mark. GT SCHMIDT created a much simpler solution that allowed inspectors to rotate the stamp on the hammer to the appropriate mark, effectively condensing six different tools into one.

Other Steel Stamps

GT SCHMIDT’s wide range of steel stamp offerings also included knurl stamps (aka, “roller” stamps used for marking round parts), shoe stamps, and electric-burning brands. The variety and versatility of GT SCHMIDT’s steel stamp inventory showed that even then, the company wanted to provide marking solutions for any industry. And as the different hammer stamp designs show, GT SCHMIDT’s custom designs, ingenuity, and solutions-based service meant they were capable of doing that 125 years ago, and we continue to do so today.