any tips on marking the knife? (letter punching)

[SHOKR]

i gave marking knives 2 shots



the lower one is a mess up knife so was ok with it, the other was not, so i was not at all happy!

any tips/tricks to that?


i don't forge so i cold hammer it.

what i did was put the knife on an I (or H, depending on your philosophical point of view) Beam, i hammer 1-3 times depending(first time i did it the punch kept shifting without me noticing, so i made sure to reposition it correctly with every new blow, worked fine, but takes time and effort), and i eyeball it using the dimensions of the punch letters as guide, so it would looks as even as possible, on the above knife i drew a line for better adjustment but i think it confused me a bit.

btw do you fix the blade with clamps or leave it loose?

thanks guys

if you have other suggestions of course do let me know, originally i wanted etching, but i'm still looking into that, think it will be costly for me, specially since no money is coming in yet (was told i can use car battery charger, any ideas how?)

 

[Gahagan]

 

[SHOKR]

thanks Gahagan,

very good idea, the 4 notches help with pinpointing?

 

[Steven Janik]

Once you get a couple sold, invest in a good stamp.
Check out Buckeye stamps http://www.steelhandstamps.com/
This is a lot cheaper than electro etcher marking but only works on un-heated blades.

Steve

 

[SHOKR]

thanks Steven

 

[Wayne Coe]

Have the blade at a red heat. Strike once, never double strike. You might consider welding the individual stamps together to make a single stamp. That will insure that the individual letters are straight and in line.
Better is to get a stamp made like Steve suggested. I made mine when I was going to the local tech college using the EDM machine.

 

[Michael Kemp]

I'm just a hobbyist - but I sure like Wayne Coe's note on striking at red heat. Wayne Goddard always advises against using stamps - says it causes stress risers. I'd never seen confirmation of that until a post today or yesterday on the Fogg forum where Doug Lester (no newb) noted that he recently had a blade break during a 90 degree bend - not at the point of maximum bend but *at the hot stamp* near the tang.

One alternative is to get an acid etching kit. Another is to use some variation of engraving. Personally, I use blue press-n-peel masks that I print on my OLD laser printer and a solution of ferric chloride (it's tweaky to get right - but opens up a lot of possibilities).

~ Michael

 

[SHOKR]

thanks Wayne