This past Father's Day, my wife and daughter purchased me a very cool gift. It is a maker's mark steel stamp for marking my projects. My wife used a blog from Chris Schwarz to pick the company to use and she provided the "artwork" (The Best Way to Stamp Your Work or Tools | Popular Woodworking Magazine).
As for the design, I wanted it to be my initials JAL with some design influence. My wife and I drew up a few ideas. My daughter walked in and and we asked her what she thought. She looked at them and came up with a derivative and we both liked it. So, like the cat and dog's name, we went with her recommendation. Not bad for a nine year old.
My wife has done well in the past on Father's Day. About 4 years ago she bought me one of those Rockler electric branding iron names as well. I've been happy with that but for some reason, I really wanted one I could stamp into the wood. Life is good.
I do have one "trick" I've figured out to make the electric branding iron work better. After testing on an offcut to find optimal hold time, I use a card scraper. That removes some of the darkened wood surrounding the branding so it is a bit more clear. I doubt I'm the first person who has ever done this.
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