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J R R Tolkien

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19 December 2010

Making a blacksmith's touchmark



I found out this morning that to have a touckmark make professionally would cost me from £70.00 for a small simple design... So I started thinking that if I can make a knife, I should be able to come up with  a suitable mark for my forged knives.I decided to experiment a bit. The steel I used on these tools are small left over silver steel, 1/4" and 3/8".

Some lessons I learned from this experiment.

I now know why they are expensive to make!

I also know its possible to home make a blacksmith's mark, so long as I keep it simple.

The ones that worked best were the squiggly S stamp and the arrow, in that order.



1/4" is too thin, I bent it the second time I hit it.

The stamps should be about 6" long, any shorter and it places your fingers too close to the hot metal you want to stamp.

3/8" should be ok for the thinner marks such as the arrow.

1/2" should be used for the somewhat bigger stamps, because it needs a fairly hefty wallop to make a mark.

So, I am going to experiment some more, and I am fairly confident I can come up with a mark that will suit the style of knives I intend to make in the near future.
A couple of results from the experiment

2 comments:

  1. You got me thinking again, Joel...;-) Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I use an "algiz" rune myself, i made it to highcarbon steel rod with Dremel and then just quenced it,works very well.


    By the way,if you want to, you can send that anvil stamp to me any day,its frigging awesome !

    If you dont, ill just be a copycat :)

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