Knife Maker's Marks
This page is about knife maker's marks, stamps, logos, signatures and emblems, in general, and my mark in particular.
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Remember: A modern unmarked knife is a worthless knife! |
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| A knife maker's mark is the individual logo, emblem, signature, design, or text that he puts on the blade to signify its origin. In factory knives it is usually a tang stamp to identify the manufacturer. Traditionally, it is placed only on the blade, usually near or on the ricasso, on the obverse side of the blade, but there are some variations of placement. See the Knife Anatomy page here for specific details about knife location and parts. |
| A mark signifies the origin of the knife, and thus its value, source, and ultimate place in the knife world. Like a brand name, a maker's mark identifies and individualizes a knife. A knife may have many owners in its lifetime, but only one original mark. An unmarked knife is essentially worthless, as it is an assemblage of miscellaneous parts, of unknown origin by an unknown craftsman. |
How are maker's marks different?
| Factories often standardize the text component of
their mark, and individual knife makers tend to do the same. They may design a
custom mark or use simple text, their mark may contain graphics and text, dates,
locations, and other information that the maker deems important. Some are
stylized, some are simple, but if a maker doesn't have a long established
reputation in knifemaking, and doesn't have a source for authentication and
identification of his maker's mark, his knives will be lost to history, and the
knife essentially valueless. I've seen many knives over the years that have
simple initials as a makers mark, and that is a hopeless and worthless
identification method. Unless the knife is accompanied by extensive information
(and on these types of knives, there is usually none), no one knows who made it,
what it's made of, where the knife came from, generally when it was made, and
how much work on the knife was done by the maker, or how much was done by other
craftsmen.
Every successful modern knifemaker has an original mark to identify his work. There are several interests now researching and compiling modern knife maker's marks for a library and sourcebook to identify as many as possible, but I'm not aware of any of them actually being complete or accessible to the public. As a serious knifemaker lives and produces knives, his name, his logo, his identification gathers interest and notoriety, and all of his maker's marks from the beginning of his knife making career or knife making endeavors become more valuable. In addition to the maker's mark, the knife maker should include essential information with the knife purchase, in as durable as form as possible. This information should include the name of the pattern, the steel type, the hardness, the fitting material, handle material or materials, and the sheath, stand, or case materials and source. The information should include who embellished the knife if the original embellishment was not accomplished by the maker. This information is essential in establishing an investment value for the knife. I include an engraved co-extruded acrylic nameplate with the information cut into the plastic, which should last indefinitely. |
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Read more about these techniques on the Embellishment Page here. Tang stamps: Older marks in the past were usually stamped into the ricasso, and many modern makers still use this method to mark their knives. They make or have made a stamping tool, and before the knife is heat treated, it is stamped deeply with the tool. I believe this is not a good practice for several reasons. The mark looks crude, simple, and rough, and though it may fit primitive-looking knives, modern knives are not well served with this archaic-looking tang stamp. It also resembles a factory knife mark, and that does not set apart the handmade custom knife, doing the knife, the maker, and the eventual owner an injustice. Stamping also may increase stresses in the blade, because it is an impact method, deforming the metal, and causing areas for stress risers during heat treat. If done after heat treating, the blade temper and hardness at the stamp area will definitely be affected. Above all, I personally think that it just looks amateur and unprofessional, but some makers still use it. It may be because it's inexpensive, and letter and number stamps are easily accessible, cheap, fast, and take no special skills to apply, which is another red flag for a professional grade knife. Rotary and impact engravers: Once in a while, you'll see a knife that has been engraved with either a high speed rotary engraving cutter (like a Dremel® tool), or a vibrating carbide-tipped marker that is usually sold as a theft deterrent for marking hand tools. These are simply awful ways to mark knives, particularly hand-made custom or high quality art knives. The marks are rough, jagged, and ill-defined as the tool ultimately skips and crawls across the blade or tang. They work by ripping and scarring the surface. This also can create peening impact stresses in the blade, and no matter the dexterity, they leave a horrible mark. Definitely a sign of poor workmanship and haste, and possibly an indicator of how the rest of the work on the knife was done. Hand Pantographic scribing: This is done with the knife blade clamped in the pantograph's vise, and a tungsten carbide or diamond-tipped point dragged across the finished surface of the blade. The marks are usually well defined, clean, and regular, with no stresses created in the blade, since there is no impact. The limitations of the scribed mark are that it is usually only text, since only text is available with a hand-pantograph in the form of letter set patterns, usually brass letter inserts that are held in the hand-operated follower of the pantograph. The other limitation is that the scribed cut is only as wide as the cutter point, which is usually incredibly small, and the mark has no visual punch or line thickness. It is, however a long-lived permanent marking method. Hand Engraving: This method is sometimes used today, usually on pieces where it is not practical or possible to have a traditional makers mark. Some makers use this exclusively for their marking method, usually only on high end knives, as it adds extra labor and cost to the piece. The mark is limited in resolution by the graver cut, but it is a chance to demonstrate the engraver's skill. I only hope that the person engraving the maker's mark is the maker himself, but often it is a custom engraver. Mechanical stresses must be considered, but as with most finely engraved knives, they are. Still, a very fine way to mark a knife, if executed well. Machine Engraving: This is, of course, a modern method, utilizing the X-Y (and sometimes Z) axis locating and positioning capabilities of a computer and servo-motor-driven positioners. The knife is clamped rigidly in a specialized vise, and a rotary or static diamond or carbide stylus cutter is moved against the knife blade under computer control at a fixed pressure. The designs are limited only by the computer operator's skill, the area to be engraved, and the mechanical relationship of the stylus to the design. It takes knowledge and practice to adequately align the mechanical components, set the spatial relationship, and arrange the design motif to fit this type of engraving onto a knife blade. It can be a scary process, because once the cutter starts carving into the surface of the steel or other material, there is no stopping, no turning back, and no buffing it out. You'll rarely see this marking method used on custom knives, but some factories use it because they can mark thousands of knives without changing the design. I use this method on knives where etching would not show a mark clearly, like on blued blades, which are already dark, or on heavily patterned steels like damascus, where a makers mark would not show clearly if etched. An evolution of this is the laser engraver, which burns the surface of the steel away in high resolution to create the design. The laser engraving method is very shallow, and not as deep and permanent as the stylus method. Electric Etching: This is the most common modern method to mark handmade knives, and is also used to mark some factory knives. The maker designs his mark on paper and submits it to a company who creates a thin plastic pattern stencil. The stencil is held against the blade, and a dauber, damp with a mild acid, is held against the blade. The blade and the dauber are connected to an electric power supply, and electrically assisted etching occurs, cutting away the metal in the exposed area of the stencil. Then, the power supply is reversed or switched to alternating current, and the metal that has been cut away is darkened. The problems with this method are that because electricity travels under the dauber, the edges of the final mark are foggy and not crisp-lined. A simple close look can tell exactly how this blade is marked. Also, because of the stencil limitations in design (no unsupported or thin areas in the stencil plastic), the designs and artwork are limited. Since the maker has to go to a stencil company for his stencils, his own creativity is somewhat limited. The good news is that this marking method is not harmful to the blade in any way, and is permanent. I marked my very first knives, made between 1979 and 1989 this way. I hand cut my own stencils, and built my power supply myself. The mark is pretty rough looking compared to the next method! Photo resistive etching or electroforming: I believe this to be the highest quality knife makers mark, and the one I've used since 1988. Hundreds and hundreds of my knives were marked with this method, and it creates the finest, clearest line with deep dark gray or black etching that is permanent, with very fine, photographic line detail to 1/100,000th of an inch. A line can be etched thick or thin, so there are no design limitations. The actual cut is done with acids, so no mechanical stresses are imposed on the blades. No electricity is used, so there is no over-etching or fuzzy borders. I developed my own proprietary process, and have been offered substantial sums of money for the particular details. I know of NO other maker who uses this exact process, and that's probably because it is complicated and very time consuming for each knife. It took me six years to develop, and now I've got the finest high-resolution etching and electroforming in the business. Want to learn how to do it? You'll need a high resolution lithographic view camera, a substantial computer with graphics capabilities, and an assortment of custom mixed acids and caustic etchants, or mordants. You'd better have some chemistry background, and an education in safely handling chemicals. You'll also need about six years to figure it out... Read more about these techniques on the Embellishment Page here. |
Jay, why did you change your maker's mark?
| Artistic growth, reputation, and momentum. My first
maker's mark was an artistic design similar to a butterfly, made of my first
name and last name initial. I took the letters "Ja" and combined them with "f"
in lowercase to make a Jaf that resembles a butterfly or wings. I thought that
my mark ought to be unique, and the "y" in my first name was silent anyway, so
it worked out well.
After a while, I decided to progress to photo resistive etching, and my mark incorporated the butterfly motif. I added the rest of my last name, and to demonstrate clearly the extreme resolution and fine detail possible with my new marking method, I added the words "Quality Custom Knives" in a triangular fashion around the signature, which was also the name on my first storefront studio in Magdalena, New Mexico. I added two identical matching flourishes to fill out the design into a more rectangular shape, and to add an artistic component. The entire mark was less than 0.3" x 0.5" in size, and I've even used a smaller mark that is one third that size! It may take a magnifying glass to read the mark, but you can make out every line. My third design, which I started using exclusively in 2007, is my butterfly signature, hand-drawn and reduced. After nearly 30 years and 18 of them full-time as a professional knife maker, literally thousands of knives, and rational direction from my wife, it seemed that the words "Quality Custom Knives" were redundant. The new mark is clean, clear and simple, and my knives can not be mistaken for knives made by others. Who knows, in another fifteen years of so, I may change my mark again. The added benefit of this is that my particular mark will identify roughly when the knife was made, for future generations, long after I (and maybe you!) are gone. |
The evolution of my maker's mark:
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This is my first maker's mark, and exists on knives I made from 1979 to 1989. It was a bit rough, made from hand-cut materials for a mask, and done with the electric etching technique, it is clearly original, and easily identifiable. Not a lot of information, though, about who JaF was! |
This is my second maker's mark, used from 1988 to the end of 2006. After decades of making knives, the words "Quality Custom Knives" seemed redundant. The quality was, well... obvious! The fine lines etched in the blades are certain indicators of the high detail. The neat thing is you can take a magnifying glass and see the tiny partial cross on the "t" of the word "Custom" on the steel. This component is about 1/10,000 of an inch wide! |
This is my third evolution of my maker's mark, a hand-inked design that is simply my artistic signature and long standing reputation. It's clear, concise, and neat, and anyone looking up the name: Jafisher on the internet will end up here! The feedback for my new mark has been great.
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