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I'd like to know this too!. I'm thinking that fine sandpaper might do the trick but I wouldnt want to ruin my stamps. I am really careful with them, but others are not as careful with mine.
You can try a few dabs from a bleach pen then rinse or a quick soak in a soapy bleach/water bath.... but a very quick one. You don't want to ruin the adhesive that's holding the rubber on.
I usually just let mine say " I am well loved! " by leaving the stains on the wood.... but then again, I don't really trade or sell them. I just keep them forever.
Take a paint brush and some bleach. Paint a little bleach on your block where it's stained. Watch it carefully and as soon as the stain dissapears, rinse well with water. Dab off the water then let air dry. Not something I recommend doing all the time, but can come in handy when you're selling them on Ebay.
I use a hand sander. I use it all of the time and just once or twice out of the hundreds of stamps I have sanded was I not able to get it all off. My sander has a pointy end so I can really get close to the stamp. If it is a really small one, I might pop the die off the block, sand it, and then put the die back on.
I have taken some really infectious looking sets and made them gorgeous again.
Ink stains show that the stamps have lived a full life and met their purpose. They've been loved by their owner and created products that brought joy to others.
I discovered that Ultra Clean will clean a lot of the stains from the wood blocks, and since it's made for rubber stamps it shouldn't hurt the rubber or adhesive.
I put clear spray paint on mine before I mount so that ink wipes right off!! When I buy ones that are dirty I sand then use a tiny pain brush to paint clear paint on!
I just removed some dried StazOn off of my wood block with some Simple Green wipes I bought at the dollar store. This stuff is amazing. I save them for very stubborn stains, but does it ever do the job!
My upline taught me to spray my wood before I mount with clear acrylic spray from Michaels....I've found Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear #1301 at WalMart in the paint department a lot cheaper and it works good, if you catch the ink quickly, but it will allow it to soak in if left on long enough to dry, then I sand with a fine emery board. I also use that emery board to sand the edges of card stock when my blade gets close to replacement on my cutter. Works great!!
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula - by Lake Superior
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I make a practice of sealing my blocks with WalMart's 96 cent clear paint, I do clean mine often, and I use Ooops! (Not to be confused with Goo-Gone, which will ruin your rubber and disolve your adhesive) Take a cotton ball and rub gently on the ink stain and it ususally takes it off a sealed surface. .
Location: Michigan's Upper Peninsula - by Lake Superior
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Continued...
I don't want to "embrace" the used look on stamps, as I feel that when I introduce a set of stamps at a workshop, I want them to have that special feel of newness and value to my stampers.
Different strokes for different folks - everybody's different and that's good.
Location: Sunny Arizona- eat your hearts out, Snowbabies!
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Great tips on keeping wood clean! My DS has been a Stampin Up demo forever and I remember the first workshop she did for me and my friends (before I knew the RULES). She held up my personal stamps and said, "You don't EVER let your stamps get to look like THIS!"
Has anyone found anything better than StazOn to clean stained rubber? I've gotten a couple of used sets than needed it. And what works best on dry pigment ink? My green rubber Paint Prints flower has pink Colorbox staining it. StazOn isn't working.
About stazon stains..sometimes I tap my stamp in stazon, and then immediatly clean the stamp as usual, and the stazon stains are gone..doesn't always work, but does a lot of times. I too am a demo, and as for stained stamps, I don't worry too much, I want my customers to know my stamps are loved and used, they don't freak out when there own get stained. I also keep my stamps for life, at least the stampin' up sets.
I know you have had a lot of great suggestions here but here's what happened to me. I borrowed someone's Fishy Friends set and I accidently got carried away with spraying the cleaning solution on my stamp cleaner pad...when I cleaned the stamps there was actually ink and foam lathering up onto the wood. Needless to say the blocks stained up pretty bad. I was so freaked out since I had borrowed them from someone who was so careful about keeping them clean. I just took a small dish of bleach and a Q-tip and cleaned the ink off with that. Worked great! And the Q-tip can reach into all the little areas too.
I think I will start spraying my blocks before mounting the stamps. I was told by my upline from the beginning that when you are doing workshops and camps people will not be as kind to your stamps as you are. Just remember the stamps are a selling tool in your business and the ink doesn't really hurt the stamp or the block.
To prevent this problem in the future, after you mount your stamps, use
clear nail polish on the wood. Being careful not to get the polish on the rubber. I have done this with my stamps and the ink rub right off.
I put clear spray paint on mine before I mount so that ink wipes right off!! When I buy ones that are dirty I sand then use a tiny pain brush to paint clear paint on!
Well, aren't you a smarty pants LOL what a great idea!
sometimes, if I'm worried:
I trim the sticker closely and put the 'negative', trimmed off part around the rubber
...instant block 'condom'--- and it's supplied by SU!
(the tops don't get too much over-inky-attention...)
I apply the image sticker using the SAMJ so that the image matches exactly where the rubber is located...petal for petal- , line for line- everytime.
this helps in 'eyeballing' stamp placement later
...no (or fewer) fudges.
__________________ if your path is boobytrapped you are probably on the right track to treasure BUT if everything is inordinately hard you probably are rushing to the final exam in the wrong place a day early.
Ink does not come off the wood cuz the wood is porous. Sanding down might work if they are SMALL stains, but if it's a lot of ink, sorry it's just not going to come off!! It does not affect the quality of the stamp, I wouldn't worry about it and people buying used stamps from you should know that they are USED, not new !!
If you are mounting new sets for yourself and don't want ink on the wood, wrap the block in clear packing tape. It's much easier than spraying with varnish and having to wait for them to dry.
__________________ I'm realizing my dream of working with animals every day. I love being a Registered Veterinary Technician !!!
Saying that a stained dirty wood block stamp shows it is used and loved is like saying that a dirty blouse or a dirty sofa is showing that it is loved and used. Used....maybe yes, but loved.....no! Would you go into a dirty (but well loved by the owner) cafe'? or would you buy a dirty (but loved car) from someone?
I love my clothes enough to keep them clean, I love my couch enough to keep it clean and in nice shape, so I feel the same way about my stamps. Keeping the rubber and the wood clean shows (to me) that it is well loved and well taken care of.
As someone else said, we are all different and that is ok. But "whatever" I am looking that is dirty and stained.....just does not appeal to me. Infact, it totally turns me off.
Having said all that, for the RUBBER I use Stazon Cleaner. IF the stain does not come off then, I will then use BLEACH. Bleach does not harm the rubber....Stampin'Up! once did a demo about putting the rubber stamp directly onto a paper towel that had bleach on it and then stamping that image with bleach on it directly onto cardstock. It gives a gorgeous bleached image. After stamping, I then wipe off the rubber with a baby wipe.
For the WOOD, I have also for the past 10 years put bleach on a Q-tip to clean stains off of the wood block. Soap and Water is NOT needed afterward. Infact, that can cause more damage by adding even more moisture and the soap to the wood.
I am not recommending doing this on a daily basis of course. But every once in a while to get both the wood and the rubber nice looking again, there is nothing wrong with this method
About stazon stains..sometimes I tap my stamp in stazon, and then immediatly clean the stamp as usual, and the stazon stains are gone..doesn't always work, but does a lot of times. I too am a demo, and as for stained stamps, I don't worry too much, I want my customers to know my stamps are loved and used, they don't freak out when there own get stained. I also keep my stamps for life, at least the stampin' up sets.
I bought a bottle of Ultra Clean stamp cleaner online several years ago (don't remember which site). It does a better job with Staz-on ink than Staz-on's own cleaner.
How do you get ink off wood?
