Thread: Archive of makers marks?

undream's thread int he forge about his home made electro etcher brought up a question for me.

I have a "Yankee" brand blade I am currently refinishing. By time I got all the pits out the makers stamp was gone. I originally intended to generate a copy of the logo in photoshop and use that as a transfer to etch the name back onto the blade.

His thread got me to thinking about it and whether you guys had an archive of makers marks somewhere that you all used for the purpose of remarking blades after restoration when needed.

Does such an archive of makers marks and logos exist for this purpose?

Ray

Hi Ray,
I've only ever found this PDF: http://www.sha.org/research_resource...0Tableware.pdf
Quite a few of the makers marks are relevant to straight razors. The wiki also has some samples of makers marks for some of the razor brands - perhaps check in there.
I'm actually in the process - as a sideline project - of redrawing all the makers marks I can find good samples of, as vectors. This may be a good while before it's done... But I promise when it is I'll send you the collection
I could perhaps help recreate the Yankee mark for you if you'd like - is it 'Yankee Cutler Co.' ? Was there any other type on the tang?

- Mike

Hey Mike,

Thanks for the offer.

Here is what I have in mind. We engravers for the past few years have found a way to transfer our drawings of our designs onto our steel using transparencies and ink jet printers.

One of my recent engraving students is a jeweler and he tells me that the ink jet printer ink he uses is chemical resistant and you can use it as a resist for things like phosphoric acid and Pheric Chloride. Well I have put two and two together and figure there must be a way to use this process to print out the makers mark as a negative, transfer it onto the steel shank or blade and etch using the transfer as the resist.

It will take a little experimentation but if I can make the process work I definitely will share it.

Anyway the shank just had "Yankee" on the shank. The Y was approx. 3/16 tall and the whole word was approx 7/8" - 1" long. There was something on the back but it was so tarnished up that I could not make it out. I am assuming it was company name and city/state.

Ray

PS. I'm gonna feel a bit stupid if you guys are already doing this. If so please let me know the details.

Ray

Ray you want to send a pm to Alex/manah here on SRP and ask himn to give you a list of just a few of the books he uses...

I know Goins is a good one..