[TheForge] makers mark

[Paul]

On 1/3/2010 11:27 PM, Dan Scheid wrote:
> A few years ago I got a elctro etch (think might have been a member of
> this group or the knife group.). that is use to etch your touch mark on
> your work. Anyways anyone know what ink is use to make the stencils? I
> would like to makes some different ones then the ones I had made for my
> touch mark.
> Dan Scheid
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I saw a article in Popular Science years ago that describe a system to 
mark chrome tools and the like for identification. The process that they 
described and that I used was was a 'ditto' machine stencil, don't ask 
me where to get one of those these days, that was stuck by a typewriter 
(with real keys and hammers with letters on them). This stencil was laid 
over a brass strip on a block of wood that was covered with a thin layer 
of cotton cloth. This gives you a stencil-cloth-brass sandwich on the 
wood block used as a handle. The brass electrode was connected to a DC 
power source, I'm going to guess negative so as to remove the metal ions 
from the surface to be marked, and the item to be marked was connected 
by default to the positive lead. I think that I used a 12 storage 
battery. The cotton strip was wetted with a salt solution to provide the 
electrolyte, and the whole stencil block was pressed up against the tool 
to be marked. It did work. You might try 'silk screen' for the stencil...

see here
http://www.1919a4.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23332
and here
http://www.markingmethods.com/pdf/ecm_parts_catalog.pdf
and here
http://chriscrawfordknives.com/electro-etching-unit/4535265119

That should get you started
Paul Sperbeck