[TheForge] Branding Irons?

[Jerry Frost]

I've repaired a few and made a couple branding irons 
but am a long way from accomplished at it. What I do 
know is a lot depends on what you're using them on. An 
iron for marking flesh is different from one for 
marking wood. You have to get the spaces at 
intersections right or they'll burn together and blur. 
Flesh blurs more than wood and some wood blurs more 
than others.

If you're actually making them for branding you want 
the iron made up from flat stock around 1/4" x 1". This 
way it picks up the heat faster and keeps hot longer 
when applied. I've seen a couple made of thicker stock 
that was beveled to around 1/4" on the burning edges.

I've seen a couple made from rebar but they're for 
making really ugly burns on wood, lots of bluring and 
smudging of the design. Round or sq. stock isn't any 
better.

Making one strictly for decoration is pretty much open 
to whatever you want to do though.

Frosty
-------------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.

http://www.artmetalradio.com/

From: "Jonathan Barnhart" <blakkpawss at yahoo.com>


> I'm not a welder, I have no welding equipment.
> Everything I weld is forge welded.  Thus welding is
> out for me.  As to the actual use, it's entirely in
> the traditional use of such items.  Cattlemen,
> horsemen, farmers that want to mark their cows and
> horses.  As well as cowboy wanna-be's that are 
> looking
> for some cool cowboy chic stuff to hang up in their
> houses.

> --- Dan Tull <dantull at numail.org> wrote:
>
>> Watch out for liability. Someone branding the human
>> body could get
>> infection, and sue you. Just be careful who you sell
>> to. Modern made(mig) is
>> much easier than traditional. Cone socket for green
>> stick?
>>
>>