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What Do You Sign Your Projects With?

C

Chris Besse

Joined
Feb 13, 2022
Messages
3
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Location
Red Deer, AB
Hi all, I’ve been turning for about eleven years now. I’m always looking for a way to sign my bowls. I have a rubber stamp and some not so permanent black ink. I see that Mike Mahoney uses a wood burning unit with a scroll tip (or something) for writing his signature on the bottom of his projects. I’m thinking that looks to be the best idea I’ve found so far. I’ve looked at a Colwood WB-Detailer but darned if I could find the correct tip for sighning your signature using cursive writing.

Lee Valley here in Canada has what I’m looking for but the Colwood pieces I would have to purchase totals about $38.00 bucks cheaper.

What do you guys recommend and use?

Thanks in advance.
Chris
 
I used to use archival ink pens (india ink pens) I'd buy on amazon - However I have since transitioned to a LaserPecker LP-1 engraver (I posted photo of how I set mine up in banjo in another thread somewhere) There's a few others here that use LP as well. I at first did not care for the "factory made" look of brands, stamps and laser engravers, but then my penmanship which was always not all that good (just a notch above the proverbial doctor's signature) has degraded (age related) so I went with the Laserpecker since I already had one that I'd been using for some flatwork designs.
 
Did you do a search here? This subject comes up all the time.
K

Thread 'Signing your work'

Searched "signing your work" and found nothing. I'm not good at signing with burner or micro-motor. Do you have a source for quality branding irons? Bought a brand from Chinese source but it didn't last and no luck getting it replaced. How do you sign your work? Do you have a branding iron source you recommend? Needs to be round and small (1").
Thomas Heck

Thread 'Signing Bowls?'

Just wondering if anyone uses a wood burning pen to sign bowls. I have used sharpies, bought a wood burning iron with signature, and currently use dremel engraver, then I stain the engraving. If the bottom isn’t perfectly flat, the iron rocks and doesn’t look good. The sharpies run and wear off. And the engraver works ok, but you have to then put stain in it to make it show. Just thought a wood burning pen might work. Thanks
 
I used to use a dental handpiece and burr. My handwriting sucks, so I'd print a full page of different sizes and fonts. I'd cut some out, pick an appropriate size and decide on placement. Then I'd use a temporary 2-sided tape to hold it in place. I printed them with red ink, so where I had been and where I still needed to go, were different colors. When followed it and peeled off the tape and paper, it usually revealed pretty good results. It was time consuming and being out of printed signatures or tape could bring it to a halt.

I ended up buying an early pod version of the Laserpecker (LP1 Pro?) and I've really been pleased with its versatility and capabilities. It would be cool if it were more powerful and could cut stuff, but it does burn in pretty nice. On one very dark walnut piece, I let it repeat 2 or 3 times, then used a lacquer pen to fill/highlight the logo. I've also burned patterns, poetry, artwork, company logos, etc. Once set up, I can do a batch of pieces while I do other stuff. It gives me a beep when it's done, then it's less than a minute to start it on the next piece.
 
This is an archival ink pen. Very fine tip, .2mm I think it shows on the pen, and they get wider and also other colors. Available at arts and crafts stores near you and/or your amazon account. I do my writing with it on bare wood, give it a couple minutes to make sure it's dry, then go over it with oil finishes.
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