Making Your Mark (Or Punch - Counter Punch)

If you're producing work that's going out in public, at some point you want to be able to sign it.  For most metal workers, that takes the form of a touchmark.  This is a punch or tool that repeatably creates a unique mark stamped into a piece.

The earliest such marks appear to have been for consumer protection, designating the purity of a precious metal item.  In the medieval period, rather than being marked by a government inspector, they would have been marked by the master smith, who was responsible for the quality of objects leaving his shop, regardless of who did the actual work.  By the early modern period, this translated into a unique mark for each metal worker.

Whether medieval blacksmiths would have had such a mark, I can't say, but they certainly would have been the ones producing the marks for others, since you generally want your mark to be a harder metal than your work piece.  This is needed both to make the mark durable, and to keep the detail crisp.

Another consideration is the size.  This mark is not a decorative element on your piece, so it should be small enough to be put somewhere out of the way.  You also want to be able to mark it on pretty much any piece you might make.  So the more delicate the work you do, the smaller the mark should be.  This can require fairly fine detail, which can be hard to produce.  One option is to engrave it into an annealed punch, and then harden the result.

However, a mark can also be created with custom chisels and punches.  Many marks are simply overlays of straight lines, and could be carved separately on each piece.  But, since that would be time consuming, you can use those chisels to make another punch, one with your mark on it (inverse), and then use that to mark.

Or, in my case, make a punch to make a punch to make a punch.

I started with a simple D shaped punch, with a slight angle carved into the back.  This punch, like all punches I make, is hardened before being used, to increase its lifespan when punching hot metal.

D Punch.  Edited to clarify punch face.

 This punch was then used, twice, to punch the interior of two Ds, back to back.  One of these Ds was ground off to form serif tails, and the other ground tight to the outside to form a D shape.  It's necessary to do the interior punch first, before grinding the exterior, because the punching process can distort the outer surface if it's thin.

This second punch is then retained because it allows me to recreate multiple maker's marks as the first one wears out.

Second Punch After Grinding

Then that punch was used to punch the final D into the actual maker's mark, which is then ground to a tight square.  This results in a final punch which produces a depressed square with a raised stylized letter D on the work piece.  My maker's mark.

Final Punch, plus sample marks on clay

At this point I've gone through the process 3 times, each time the mark has gotten smaller, so it will fit on more of my work.

I think this most recent one should last me awhile, assuming I don't lose it.

Salvaging a Project

This one started as part of the Fitchburg Forge-In, a competition I do every year.  This was the two hour session.  But it's fair to say I wasn't happy with the result. I accidentally used the wrong stock for practice, so I screwed up the cups, and ran out of time to do cleanup.  So I took another hour or so to go back and clean it up.

The first step was some grinding and filing to bring the points into line.

Then straightening out and cleaning up the arms, combined with removing the existing, unsalvageable candle cups.  One went ahead and removed itself, leaving behind a gorgeous blue temper color, so I cut the other to match.

A spring fuller to clean up the shoulder, and a top and bottom swage to push the arm to round, so I could cut a 1/4-20 thread on it.

Then came making the new cups.  This was done by swaging a piece of candle diameter pipe down to  a diameter small enough to take the same thread.  You actually go a little undersized, then use the remaining hole as a pilot for the tap drill.  This is obviously not a medieval solution to this problem, although you could take the same basic approach and peen over the arm inside the cup.

Work the opening of the cup over the horn for a nice decorative shape, cut the two halves of the pipe apart for the two cups, drill and tap, and you're good to go.  A little bit of oil baked on for a nice finish, and I'm much happier with the final product.