SCOUTDOGS Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Hi, I just wanted to let geocachers know that if you find a container with just a log book and an ink stamp in it, you have probably found a letterbox - not a geocache. PLEASE don't take the stamp! Letterboxers don't trade trinkets, they trade images from ink stamps. If you take the stamp, the next letterboxer has nothing to stamp into their logbook. Our hobbies can co-exist if we just take the time to learn a bit more about the differences and similarities. Thank-you, Scoutdogs Quote Link to comment
+EthicalEgoist Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 On a slightly unrelated note, do you know of any good places to get rubber stamp-making supplies? I imagine a good number of Geocachers would be interested in having a stamp for themselves on hand. _________________________ ~ Ryan S Eanes ~ RSEanes.com. Why not? http://www.rseanes.com Quote Link to comment
SE7EN Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 A litst of links can be found here. Click around and I'm sure you'll find what you need. Quote Link to comment
+hikemeister Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Thanks -- I wondered what letter boxing was. Will watch out for those stamps. Quote Link to comment
ChiefPig Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 So, do we use the stamp in the cache to stamp our logbook and use our stamp to stamp the logbook in the cache? Is it like exchanging stamps? Do you provide the ink in the cache as well? Won't they dry up during winter? Quote Link to comment
Swagger Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by BayRidgeRyan:On a slightly unrelated note, do you know of any good places to get rubber stamp-making supplies? I imagine a good number of Geocachers would be interested in having a stamp for themselves on hand. I got a carving block (looks like a big, square pink eraser that's about 1/4" thick) and a carving tool with a variety of tips for like $20 at Michael's. They have a store locator there so you can see if there's one near you. If so, look in the section where all the paint supplies are. -- Pehmva! Random quote: Quote Link to comment
Swagger Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by ChiefPig:So, do we use the stamp in the cache to stamp our logbook and use our stamp to stamp the logbook in the cache? Is it like exchanging stamps? Exactly. quote:Do you provide the ink in the cache as well? Won't they dry up during winter? I don't know if letterboxers typically leave ink in the box, but you need to bring your own anyway (akin to making sure you've got a pencil in case the cache doesn't), so it doesn't much matter. NOTE: Make sure you get dye-based ink. Do NOT use your standard stamp pad like you get from Office Depot. They contain acids and will break down the paper you're stamping. EDIT: Just FYI - Speedball Art is the company that makes the carving block and cutting tool I got. -- Pehmva! Random quote: Quote Link to comment
+MountainMudbug Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by ChiefPig:So, do we use the stamp in the cache to stamp our logbook and use our stamp to stamp the logbook in the cache? Is it like exchanging stamps? Do you provide the ink in the cache as well? Won't they dry up during winter? Letterboxing is basically like geocaching, but you're not taking anything away from the box aside from an inked impression of the letterbox stamp. The hidden letterbox you find will have a stamp and logbook (some hiders include inkpads in the box; some don't because they can get funky/frozen). You will have brought along your own personal stamp and logbook (bring an inkpad, too, as the letterbox might not have one). You find the letterbox, stamp your personal stamp into the letterbox's logbook and also write the date, time, etc in the book. Then imprint the letterbox's stamp into your logbook as a record of your find. Be sure to gently blot off the excess ink from the letterbox's stamp before you replace it so it doesn't get too nasty. I've run across letterbox logs where finders just write in their info because they haven't made/bought a stamp. I'm also finding more and more geocachers are using stamps to sign geocache logs - I do this too, and think it is a neat idea. Quote Link to comment
+parkrrrr Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Cruzin!:I got a carving block (looks like a big, square pink eraser that's about 1/4" thick) and a carving tool with a variety of tips for like $20 at http://www.michaels.com/. They have a store locator there so you can see if there's one near you. If so, look in the section where all the paint supplies are. I'll second the vote for Michael's. I got a carving block there, too, but it's one of the more expensive white rubber Speedball ones (I had a half-off coupon, so I bought a really big one.) I found it with the printmaking supplies, which may or may not be near the paint in every store, but someone who works there should be able to tell you how to find them. I chose not to buy a carving tool, since I already had a rotary carving tool for carving wood (sort of like a Dremel tool with carving bits.) The biggest caveat with a rotary carving tool is that you have to make sure that the "pattern" side of your cut is the side of the tool thats going down into the material; otherwise you end up with lots of little burrs on the edge of the pattern. You can clean them up with an X-acto knife, but if you're doing that you might as well have bought the hand tools to begin with. The only part of the stamp pictured below that I had to do by hand was the space between the eyes and part of the whites of the eyes; the rest was done with a small spherical diamond carving bit. Quote Link to comment
ChiefPig Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 This sounds very interesting. I think I just might make a signature stamp to use in caches that I find and maybe I should start some letterboxing caches in my area too! I don't think there is a single one within 100 miles. Quote Link to comment
+CacheCreatures Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 After reviewing www.letter-boxing.com, it doesn't seem to me that this variant is as well organized as GeoCaching. Maybe thats the point? To let local areas organize their own letter-boxing events? I wonder if letter boxing might be a neat addition to this website... CacheCreatures are spreading... They can hide, but they can't run! Quote Link to comment
SE7EN Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Have the more experienced cachers that also letterbox found they enjoy letterboxing more than caching? Quote Link to comment
SE7EN Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by CacheCreatures:I wonder if letter boxing might be a neat addition to this website... It'd never happen. Besides a lot of history between TPTB and the folks over at letterboxing.org, letterboxers would never stand for the concept of having to get approval to get listed. Quote Link to comment
+MountainMudbug Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by SE7EN:Have the more experienced cachers that also letterbox found they enjoy letterboxing more than caching? I don't have an excess of experience but I have hunted both (more caches than l.b.s) I enjoy following the l.b. clues to an extent - personal interpretations of so-called landmarks can be easily misunderstood (by me, anyway ) and leave you poking around everywhere. Not that this doesn't happen with geocaches, too - I just find that having clues and coordinates together works much better for me. So therefore I must say I enjoy caching more. Not to mention the website! There's hardly a comparison to be made IMHO You have no idea of the status of a l.b., no idea how many have found it, etc etc But I'm still searching for boxes - I've got one that is 'not found' after 3 attempts, so now I've got to contact the placer for clues. Many l.b. placers don't live close enough to maintain their boxes. There isn't the approval system in letterboxing that geocaching has, so the vacation letterbox is a common thing. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:After reviewing www.letter-boxing.com, it doesn't seem to me that this variant is as well organized as GeoCaching. Maybe thats the point? To let local areas organize their own letter-boxing events? The website is www.letterboxing.org. The website isn't nearly as robust as this one, but there are probably 30 geocachers for every one letterboxer in the US. In NJ we have 90 some letterboxes and over a thousand geocaches, so obviously they really don't need the features we have on GC.COM. quote:I wonder if letter boxing might be a neat addition to this website. Jeremy approached the letterboxing.org website in the beginning, to see if they'd be interested in becomming part of this website. They declined. Still, we do have the letterbox/geocache hybrid category, where you can place a cache and also list it on the www.letterboxing.org website. quote: Have the more experienced cachers that also letterbox found they enjoy letterboxing more than caching? I find letterboxing to be as enjoyable as geocaching. The sports are very similar and because of this, many letterboxes are near geocaches (which probably prompted the original post). The only downsides of letterboxing are, 1. there aren't all that many of them out there (in the US), and 2., there is no online logging. I like the immediate gratification of seeing "found it" logs on my caches. You don't get that with letterboxing. "You can't make a man by standing a sheep on his hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" - Max Beerbohm Quote Link to comment
+woodsters Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:Originally posted by CacheCreatures:After reviewing http://www.letter-boxing.com, it doesn't seem to me that this variant is as well organized as GeoCaching. Maybe thats the point? To let local areas organize their own letter-boxing events? I wonder if letter boxing might be a neat addition to this website... _CacheCreatures are spreading... They can hide, but they can't run!_ There are "Letterbox Hybrid" caches out there. They are both Geocache and theres a letterbox inside it. It's already here on the site and plays hand in hand. Brian www.woodsters.com Quote Link to comment
ChiefPig Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 I think my new avatar would be my new stamp It would probably just take me days to make Quote Link to comment
+WalruZ Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 It may not be in keeping with the spirit of LB, (handcarving & all), but you can get stamps made online through iprint.com. I believe they do more or less simple graphics. Long ago and far away I had a stamp made from a high-contrast picture of my face. It's around here somewhere... Quote Link to comment
+Juggling Kenai Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 I too find letterboxing different, but equally as enjoyable as geocaching. We're not in to geocaching for the trading: our two year old is equally excited by random things in geocaches as getting a stamp on his hand (and arm, leg, and face). We geocache more than letterbox because there are more caches, and because we can tell where they are -- life surrounds the nap. I really like the compass and hints nature of letterboxing, which can get very sophisticated. Since we didn't know if we'd like letterboxing, we just picked up a stamp pad and small stamp at a local store and use that. Quote Link to comment
+SamLowrey Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 I didn't know all this about stamps. I thought it was just like microcaches in that you just sign the log, and don't trade, usually. Quote Link to comment
+shuccrum Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 It really sounds interesting to me. "Be careful if you don't know where you are going because you may not get there (without a gps). Yogi Berra Quote Link to comment
Captain Chaoss Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 I read about letterboxing when I started caching, and made my own stamp from an eraser In addition to logging, I stamp the book as well in caches. There are a couple of other cachers in this area who do the same. My multi-cache-to-be will have a stamp and be posted as a letterbox as well. Both sports certainly do go hand in hand. Two roads diverged in the woods and I, I took the one less traveled, and that is how I found the cache. Quote Link to comment
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