What is the most inconspicuous way to put a “makers mark” a knife?

[SwissHeritageCo]

View attachment 2124990

I see nothing, nothing!

But yeah, I'm personally not a fan of the over-branding that you see running rampant these days. For my sense of taste it detracts from the actual work and craftsmanship. I have a small simple stamp I use on my sheaths, one on the side and one on the dangler... and I'm considering getting rid of the one on the dangler:

 

[Seedy Lot]

For years I barely sold knives without maker's mark, once I started stamping my knives the business significantly picked up.

 

[Steelhog]

I see nothing, nothing!

But yeah, I'm personally not a fan of the over-branding that you see running rampant these days. For my sense of taste it detracts from the actual work and craftsmanship. I have a small simple stamp I use on my sheaths, one on the side and one on the dangler... and I'm considering getting rid of the one on the dangler:

View attachment 2125070

That is my style - small symbol that does not detract from the craftsmanship. Beautiful work and really like what you have done with this.

 

[Natlek]

I understand the importance of maker recognition and branding but I personally don’t like branding or makers marks in general - on anything. I feel almost every knife/product looks better with no mark. Now that I am making my own knives, I feel the need to somehow “mark it” but run into this personal dislike of branding and makers marks on products. What is the most inconspicuous way to put a “makers mark” a knife?

Etch your maker mark only with AC but don t darken , problem solved
This is laser , but just to get idea how it would look .............almost invisible but still there .

Edit
letters are 8 millimeters, the magnifying glass is only to reflect the light. without it I could not take a good picture to see the stamp

 

[SwissHeritageCo]

View attachment 2124990

Good god man, after staring at it multiple times I finally caught on. Feels like I just got done finding Waldo.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Take down handle. Mark on tang.

 

[Skinner79]

I'm a hobbyist maker, but have bought more handmade knives than I have made. Personally, I would not buy a knife that didn't have the maker's mark. But keep it simple and small.

 

[Nsled]

Eh disagree, It needs make and model, steel type, HRC, batch number etc. the more the better. No overly large logo though, that provides nothing.

 

[Busto]

Today's market is filled with competition and the Makers Mark represents YOUR Place. You can mark your knives with as much or as little information as you see fit with the "Option" to leave the knife "Sterile" for those not caring who you are or what they are purchasing. If I see no makers mark I pass on purchase considering it to be of questionable quality like Pakistani mystery materials...just my 2 cents.

 

[Horsewright]

One thing I also recommend when asked and I see so many folks NOT do this. Is make sure that your maker's mark is Googalble. I had a very nice knife in for a sheath the other day and the maker's mark was a circleT. Now search that. This happens all the time. Ya see a couple of intials, or a symbol or a logo, in my western world a brand. If you are trying to make knives to sell and are marking them your mark needs to be searchable.

 

[Rick Marchand]

One thing I also recommend when asked and I see so many folks NOT do this. Is make sure that your maker's mark is Googalble. I had a very nice knife in for a sheath the other day and the maker's mark was a circleT. Now search that. This happens all the time. Ya see a couple of intials, or a symbol or a logo, in my western world a brand. If you are trying to make knives to sell and are marking them your mark needs to be searchable.

Yes yes yes.... this. I think it was Ed Caffrey that pointed that out to me almost 2 decades ago ..... instant "Doh!" moment. Hard to type Kanji characters into the googles.

 

[dwaterfield]

One thing I also recommend when asked and I see so many folks NOT do this. Is make sure that your maker's mark is Googalble. I had a very nice knife in for a sheath the other day and the maker's mark was a circleT. Now search that. This happens all the time. Ya see a couple of intials, or a symbol or a logo, in my western world a brand. If you are trying to make knives to sell and are marking them your mark needs to be searchable.

Yeah this is the debate I'm having with myself at the moment. The name of my fledgling business is Wandering Path Forge. That forces my logo to be big (see example below). I've considered going with a smaller graphic and "WPF"...I would need to make sure that searching for something like "WPF knife" got you to my site.

Maybe I should etch a QR code into the blade!

https://flic.kr/p/2omtxfS

 

[navman]

One thing I also recommend when asked and I see so many folks NOT do this. Is make sure that your maker's mark is Googalble. I had a very nice knife in for a sheath the other day and the maker's mark was a circleT. Now search that. This happens all the time. Ya see a couple of intials, or a symbol or a logo, in my western world a brand. If you are trying to make knives to sell and are marking them your mark needs to be searchable.

Well....crap. Now I have to completely re-think my Makers Mark, which was going to be a stylized JM in a circle.

 

[Sando]

 

[gooeytek]

As a buyer/user, I like a discrete etch on the spine with the bladesteel/maker's mark since it gets difficult to keep track when there are many knives involved, especially when there are different ways to maintain/store/handle various bladesteels.

I also like the idea of navman's mosaic pin identifier. I'm a fan of mosaic pins in general.

 

[Joseph Bandeko]

Yes, makers mark needs to be on the blade. I used to not put a mark on my blades and almost every single person told me it HAS to be on there, and unfortunately I think I lost a lot of sales because of it.
Sorry for the rant.

I’ve seen guys do some sort of very distinct fill work on the spin as there makers mark, which at first glance looks like fancy jimping, then you realize it’s the makers mark!

 

[Horsewright]

The wife is pretty domestic. She does a lot of the ironing on our outfit:

Relatively inconspicuous:

As far as marking my knives I've gone to cold stamping prior to ht.

Might do a few at a time:

Course might have to do some more:

All sheaths holsters etc are stamped on the backside except my boot sheath which is done on the front:

Soft leather items are usually done with a tag:

 

[JV Knives]

I also thought about getting with a custom EDM mosaic pin maker and having a mosaic pin created with a makers mark.

I have ordered some of these in the past...one thing to remember is the detail because it's really obscured at such a small surface. Go with something simple or bold in the pin if you can.

 

[David Mary]

I made this and I stand behind my work.

Yes, a maker's mark is about accountability more than branding or recognition.

 

[Steelhog]

Yes, a maker's mark is about accountability more than branding or recognition.

True.