Just a Quick Tip

Horsewright

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
11,574
In a post condemning suggestions a short time ago, I made a suggestion regarding tooling initials, brands etc. I was doing a little of that work a short time ago and snapped a couple of pics to further out line the suggestion.

The work under way here is the center piece of a martingale/breast collar. This piece of saddlery helps hold the saddle in place in rough country and allows the horse something to lean against when roping and dragging heavy cattle. This pic is a set of four and four knives that I made a while back for prizes. The piece that we are working on is the one that folds over the bottom of the big 3" D ring. This strap goes to the cinch between the horses front legs.

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So on this order I was making two of these martingales with the customer's brand on that center flap that is sewn down. If you are doing initials I suggest getting a suitable size of letter stamps. Hit them very lightly just to make a light indentation. The problem with most letter stamp sets is that when hit hard enough to make a decent impression you often get an unwanted impression of the stamp body too not just the letter. These are tough to get rid of. So a while back we started doing brands and initials this way to avoid that. Just a cautionary note. If ya get into doing brands get the customer to email the brand to you. Different parts of the country read brands completely differently. So where this customer is from this brand is read as Lazy C L. Around here a Lazy C L would be completely different. Here this brand would be described as a Lazy C over L attached. Get a pic of the brand, trust me.

So here we are part way through. I'd drawn out the brand and then cut the lines with a swivel knife. Take your bevelers and bevel the the lines to the inside. If you are using stamps for the initials do the same thing only no need to use the swivel knife. Stamp the initials and then bevel to the inside. Then grab a back grounder and background the interior of the brand or initials. Really don't matter what kind of backgrounder ya use.

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Finish off and basically you are done. This method provides a uniform, professional and very durable way of making a brand or initials without trying to rub out those dang stamp marks.

Ya want to get fancy, a guy can always dye the background too.

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Hope this was helpful and thanks for looking. Questions and comments always welcome.
 
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