Name stamp for wooden tools

[petek]

I use a few of my grandfather?s tools (early 1900?s) e.g. wooden planes, cramps, squares and mallet, which have his name stamped on them. The letters are approx 1/4? (6mm) high and look as though they were stamped with a bespoke name stamp ? not by stamping individual letters as they are so regular and lined up exactly. Looking at other wooden tools from the same era, it seems as though it was usual for craftsmen to identify their own tools in this manner. I would like to get hold of a stamp for my own name that I could use on my various woodworking projects. Has anybody any idea where I could get one made? Cheers Pete

[Richard]

[Nick Odell]

By all means get a custom stamp made up but - unless the lettering on your grandfather's tools are in a unique cursive script - don't be too quick to dismiss the skill of people of that generation with a lowly letter punch. 1/4" is a standard punch size. It would have been normal to use a jig to guide the punch so that the letters and numbers were evenly spaced. When we used to make electric guitars on a production line, we used to stamp the serial numbers on the back using a jig and individual punches and IMO the results were pretty good.

Nick

[S Viemeister]

My dad had a set of punches, and the results were as you describe.

[Andy Burns]

I've got my grandad's branding iron that he used to burn his initials into wooden bulb crates etc, never saw it while he was alive, found it when clearing out his sheds/barns.

[Thomas Prufer]

Look for a "steak branding iron" or a "bbq branding iron" and see if that is something you would like. Moveable letters and holder for 10 pounds or so.

Thomas Prufer