mitch
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,641
Over the weekend I met a close friend’s brother-in-law and he asked what I did? When I said I was an engraver his eyes lit up and he told me an amazing story about what he did as a young kid in Vietnam before his family was able to escape in the late 1970s.
When South Vietnam fell in ‘73-‘74 many people fled the country by any means possible, often abandoning their vehicles along the roads to airports or harbors. One couldn’t claim and resell them without a title, so enterprising folks started counterfeiting those. However, they needed official stamps (sounds like they were similar to a notary stamp). The fakes were carved in the end grain of wooden dowels with little more than a razor blade. When my friend’s BIL was only about 12 years old, he learned how to carve these. After the Communists took over people needed passes just to travel from town to town, and these all needed official stamps, so he branched out into faking these, too. Since every town had its own stamp, this kept him pretty busy.
Now that he’s semi-retired he wants to take up engraving as a hobby. I told i would ask if anyone has a GraverMax/Mach they’ve been thinking about selling, or any other equipment?
When South Vietnam fell in ‘73-‘74 many people fled the country by any means possible, often abandoning their vehicles along the roads to airports or harbors. One couldn’t claim and resell them without a title, so enterprising folks started counterfeiting those. However, they needed official stamps (sounds like they were similar to a notary stamp). The fakes were carved in the end grain of wooden dowels with little more than a razor blade. When my friend’s BIL was only about 12 years old, he learned how to carve these. After the Communists took over people needed passes just to travel from town to town, and these all needed official stamps, so he branched out into faking these, too. Since every town had its own stamp, this kept him pretty busy.
Now that he’s semi-retired he wants to take up engraving as a hobby. I told i would ask if anyone has a GraverMax/Mach they’ve been thinking about selling, or any other equipment?
