Advice: stamping or etching?

I'm kinda partial to Julie Warenski's engraved marks myself. (Wife just dope slapped me)
 
I use both, but started with the etched mark. I recently got a simple anvil in a circle with my initials for use on forge finished surfaces. That's the one drawback to the etch, it doesn't really like a rough or irregular surface. I'd love to have the exact same stamp as my etched logo, but my last name has 8 letters and on a forge finished piece it'd be kinda hard to read unless I made it way bigger than I like. Both methods have there learning curve, the one draw back to stamping is that it can cause a stress riser, but a little forethought can eliminate this. The one real drawback to etching is the need for a relatively smooth surface. The one thing I really like about etching is that it doesn't care if the blade is hard or not, and I can do it after everything else is done as one of the final steps and it comes out crisp and clean, and it's as deep as my stamp.
 
Steel is cheaper than it was in 2010. It's actually been extremely low for the last year but has been ticking up since the election. In 2010 we were paying .40-41 per pound for A36 and for the last 12 months or so our current contracts have been around .29 cents per pound.
 
john april said:
250 ?? i bought mine around 2010, i did not think steel prices had gone up that much :(
Click to expand...
it's the labor that went up, the lady was very nice on the phone and said that it takes them a while to make them and they are just covering their costs to make it worthwhile.
 
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