Anyone care to critique my maker's mark?

B

bndshardr

Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
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I've been meaning to get to this for quite some time and this morning had the opportunity to get some help from a neighbor who works with Adobe Illustrator. I've paid attention to the comments I've seen in other "how's this maker's mark?" threads... Use your name, identify your state,,, those kinds of things. So, this is what I came up with. The knife that forms the "L" is just a rough sketch that we did in a couple of minutes, if the concept is sound, I'll tweak it to make it look a little nicer.

KruegerMakersMark17Jan15_zps4152090f.jpg


My one concern is resolution. I need it to scale down to an overall height of about 5/16" and the lines get pretty fine.

My first instinct is to get my stencils through Ernie at Blue Lightning. Are there any others that I should take into consideration?

Thanks for the help.

-Kurt
 
Ernie rocks!

He will be happy and able to talk things over by phone or email.

He has a Lot of experience, so his advice is totally solid.
 
I too, recommend Ernie's stencils.
Your lettering looks excellent, but I'd loose the imagery.

You say the total height is to be 5/16".....that will make your state image so small as to be
unrecognizable.

The blade cross section in place of an "L" is a distraction.

I'd recommend using your name, in the lettering style shown, and nothing else.
 
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Based on feedback from here an another forum...

I almost expected to get the "lose the state" feedback.

I tapped my neighbor to make a minor modification but didn't bother him with a search for an alternate font,,, house full of kids + Saturday afternoon = little spare time.

How does this version appeal?

KruegerMakersMarkV-217Jan15_zpsfd6c7f53.jpg


Thanks again.

-Kurt
 
I don't know of you have to add "Blades" to it, if it's on a blade, kinda redundant. I do like it though, just a thought. Where at in Mn? I'm north of Duluth.
 
Thanks for the comments, I'm in the Forest Lake area, north end of the Twin cities.

This is my Aurora.

20140806_184831_zpsd57ef8ab.jpg
 
I would drop the blades word. The font looks nice but the g in Kruger looks a little like an S. I am too picky but I vote for just Kruger.
 
Just pick a nice legible font and use your last name. It gives a more professional and refined look. Stay away from cute or overly clever logos or visual puns. Symbols are fine if it means something to you but it will take a while before anyone ties it to who you are. Keep it simple.
 
Thanks for the input everybody!

I do have to say I'm surprised that the consensus is "just the name". The reason I tried to take some creative liberty with the mark is that, well, frankly, I'm nobody, and I thought that a little flair would stand out more memorably than "Smith" or "Jones".

I definitely will revisit the font. In hindsight, I think it is too elaborate and has detail too fine to replicate with an etch. And now that I look at it, yeah, the g does look like an s. Aw ghit!

This kind of feedback is exactly why I posted this rather than just send it off to the stencilographer.

Thanks again

-Kurt
 
bndshardr,

Keep this in mind. What makes you stand out is the style and quality of your work. If the quality is there it won't matter if your last name was one of those eastern block country names 10 letters long with only consonants and no vowels. People will remember the name. Strive to make your knives recognizable without people reading the name. But I think the makers mark should reflect your personality and style. If you make fun or quirky stuff then have a mark with some funky flair if you want as long as it's easily readable. If you make traditional stuff then have a classy elegant logo. You get the idea.
 
What looks good a 1.5" tall may be unreadable when scaled down to blade size. I like your second mark better, but if the distance from the butt to tip of the knife/K is 5/16", that would make the lower case letters a tad less than 1/16"

Get rid of the knife blade, strange fonts, and simply put your name on a straight line and stay simple. K.Krueger or Kurt Krueger will be much neater and memorable.

Once you become a famous knifemaker, then you can make new and different marks and add words like "blades".

Look at the marks for the more well known makers.....They are all basic block letter names - MORAN, LAKE, R.A.FRAZIER, SCAGEL
 
Go ahead and use the Krueger Blades for your LOGO. Put it on a business card, web site, letterhead, whatever. For a maker's mark, simple is better. Krueger will do just fine, it's already on a blade so everyone will know what you make.

My $.02
 
Thanks for all the sound advice everybody. You've convinced me to keep things simple and just use my name. I just need to find a font that I like and is conducive to stenciling.

-Kurt
 
Thanks again for all the input and suggestions.

Here's a picture of the first knife that bears my maker's mark. It's for my mom, she broke a favorite paring knife a while back and I said I'd make one to replace it. It's O-1, HRC 62, 600 grit hand sanded finish. Scales are paduk with 416 SS pins and brass & stainless mosaic pins. Getting the appearance I wanted on the mark took some experimenting. I built an etcher using a 12/24 volt transformer and got my stencils from Ernie and used chemicals from USA Knifemaker. I think I'm satisfied with the results.

-Kurt

DSC02838_zps3dacb70f.jpg
 
Personally I like the mark you ended up going with on that paring knife. It looks clean and well defined. Nice job!

Jay
 
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