THIS is what Wood-Forged Craftworks is all about

The process of forging a brand for the Wood-Forged Logo

I started woodworking as a child. I started blacksmithing as a teenager, during my first year of college. I built a Tim Lively washtub forge in about a day, and got a piece of metal up to forging temperatures with scrap wood for fuel. The idea of taking something as seemingly unyielding as steel and making it soft enough to bend, twist, and shape into whatever form I could want opened up a world of possibilities. At this early stage in my metalworking journey, I was over-confident and under-skilled.

Fast forward to this week. I wanted a way to mark my work, and a brand or stamp was the best way to do that. I sketched out the basic shape of the Wood-Forged Logo on a piece of steel flat bar, and used the rotary tool to start removing small bits of material. Too small. it was going to take forever to do anything meaningful. Once the general outline was established, I fired up the forge.

heating things up in the forge

Using a small punch (formerly a hammer drill bit), I pushed aside enough metal to start using a larger punch. This time though, it was a small section of half inch mild steel round bar that I had previously hammered into a punch shape. It worked well, and I quickly punched down the bulk of the material. Next came a chisel, to establish the square outline. Then, I needed to do the quintessential blacksmithing ‘thing’. I needed to make a tool to make a tool. I was having some trouble using a round punch to set some of the hard edges along the outlines. A square, or a rectangle, would work better. So, I made a rectangular punch.

It was just another hunk of mild steel that I was already using as a round punch, but a few whacks with the hammer turned it into the tool I needed. Being mild steel, it required some readjusting every few heats, but it served its purpose well.

Mild Steel Punch, Before and After

I used a hardy tool to cut the square section off the bar, then it was back to the rotary took to clean up the lines. The angle grinder brought the outer dimensions to their final thickness, and I welded on a handle. Back into forge to heat up the face of the brand, and it saw its first use on the edges of two walnut and maple cutting boards.

I’ve seen other people ‘carving’ metal using punches and chisels, but I’ve never done it myself to this extent. this is the essence of what Wood-Forged-Craftworks is all about. I wanted something, but rather than spend big bucks on a commercially made version I just took a shot at making it myself. Is it perfect, no. But it didn’t need to be. It does what it says on the tin, and if I ever want a better one, I’ll make a better one.

The finished brand