A master model, called a “hub” is hand-engraved by a master engraver into a block of carbon steel using a hammer and series of steel chisels called gravers. When the hub was finished being carved it was tempered by heat treating in a tempering furnace.  After the hub was tempered it was pressed against an un-tempered block of steel in a heavy 500 ton hydraulic press.  This created the "Die", a mirror of the hub.  The new die was then tempered and again, forced into another block of un-tempered steel to create a "Forcer".  After the forcer was heat treated, it and the die together make a working "Die Set".  Upon completion of the working die set the hub was stored away only to be used again if another die set needed to be made. Other tools such as blanking dies, trimming dies, forming dies and piercing dies were than made to accommodate the working die set and together were used to create the finished stamped parts.  

The first stamping, which needs to be trimmed and pierced.  Traditonaly, this would be done with a group of die sets that remove the excess material with a series of stampings that trim off the excess material from the perimiter and pierce the negative spaces inn the design.  Depending on the condition of the die sets in our collection, we sometimes elect to pierce the negative spaces by hand with a series of twist drills and a jewelers saw.  Whikle this may seem to be more time consuming than stamping, the piercing dies can be espescially "tempermental" to work with.