Medallions for signing your work

[Tom Jones III]

LOML has declared that I must start signing my work. I know the topic of signing your work has been beaten to death, the usual answers are sharpies, archival pens, engravers and wood burning. One really nice solution I've seen was posted by Ken Salisbury and Keith Outten. I think it was Keith that was using a laser engraver to make wood medallions. Has anyone ever seen a commercial version of that? I would especially like to find a version of that medallion in brass.

Here is one of the threads showing Keith and Ken's solutions http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?8409-Signing-Your-Work/page3

[Ralph Y Thorne]

Search craftid

[Marty Tippin]

Highland Woodworking sells them - they're really pretty nice; I've used them on several recent projects. The laser engraving is deep enough that you can sand the medallion perfectly flush without worrying about destroying the engraving.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/search.aspx?find=signature+medallions

[Paul Proffitt]

Tom, I'm the maker of CraftID signature medallions mentioned above by Ralph. Most that I make are wood. I think if you are looking for brass you'd want to do a search for something like campaign medals or medallions. I have some samples somewhere that were really nice (cast metal and filled with epoxy or resin). But they are a bit expensive in small quantities, not to mention the setup time and cost. If you'd like something unique made from wood though I'd be more than happy to make something for you.

Paul Proffitt, Suwanee, GA

[Tom Jones III]

Thanks everyone, that was fast help! Paul, it is great to see a business owner on the board. I'm on your site now and it looks just like what I wanted.

[Keith Outten]

Tom,

Thanks for the kind words about my medallions. I have several stacks of thin wood pieces in front of my laser engraver now getting ready to make medallions for some of our Moderators. BTW you can also order plastic medallions in gold, silver and just about any color you want. Any laser engraver can make them for you and we have a huge group of them here including Paul so you can get excellent quality medallions here pretty cheap.

I like to make mine in both 3/4" and 1" diameters so you can drill your inlay hole with a forsner bit and the medallions will fit perfectly every time.
.

[Rich Enders]

Tom,

We have ordered several times from Vidi at info@vidicomm.UK. He custom makes brass medallions, and does it the old fashioned way. He first makes up a rendering, you approve, and mail a check to the UK, and he sends you the completed medallions. It takes a while but his work is high quality, the affixing nails are included, and he keeps a record of your purchases so reordering is easy.

We found him via a small ad in FWW. He runs the ad about quarterly.

[Myk Rian]

I use my electric iron burner to make wood medallions.

[Shawn Pixley]

I cast mine from Bronze. It holds a penny for the year.

Here are two I cast last night. They are still unfinished and have only been lightly wire brushed so far. Mine is sized for a standard forstner and the hole is sized for a penny. The original was carved wax. The first was cast and cleaned up. I made a rubber mold from that casting and then created multiple wax positives that I can cast whe I need a new medallion. I may make a fancier version later, but used this one to try out production tecnhiques. I may make a smaller version later for smaller pieces.

292307
Sorry for the lousy smartphone picture. I don't know why the photos end up being flipped. Maybe I need to move to the southern hemisphere.

If I didn't have the capability of making my own, I would use one of the fine people here to make a supply. Mine cost more per unit than buying them, but I enjoy the process.

[Paul Proffitt]

Tom, If I can answer any questions for you regarding the options for medallions please feel free to contact me via post or private message. I current make medallions in sizes of 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1.5" and 2". But I am open to and have made custom sizes. Keith was right that the goal is to make it simple to install using a standard size Forstner bit.

Many of my customers are turners. They typically have two concerns: 1) thinness of the bottom of the item and 2) finishing of the bottom. Most of the medallions I make are from 1/16" solid wood veneer to address the 'thinness' concern. I typically recommend drilling a hole ever so slightly deeper than the 1/16" and easing the edge. This way the medallion sits just below the surface. In my opinion this provides a better presentation and avoids the need to sand the fragile engravings in the medallion. This way the artist can sand and seal the piece then insert the medallion for final finishing. I'm sure others will have more suggestions. This is just what seems to work well from the many instances I've seen.

I am working hard now to completely revamp the website so that I can include ornament medallions and non-round medallions just to name a few. I've made some efforts on signature options for pepper mills, but still working on those. And as Keith mentioned there are other materials. Plastics come in a wide variety of color combinations and can be embedded or applied to the artwork. I haven't done much with leather, but am hoping to test that mostly for attachment rather than embedded applications.

[Halgeir Wold]

292307
Sorry for the lousy smartphone picture. I don't know why the photos end up being flipped. Maybe I need to move to the southern hemisphere.



Not to be nosey, Shawn, but are you left handed???? I did the same with my first Iphone..... :D

[Shawn Pixley]

Not to be nosey, Shawn, but are you left handed???? I did the same with my first Iphone..... :D

I'm not really left handed but rather right handed with a degree of ambigdexterity. Baseball, I switch hit. Guitar strictly right handed. I can catch with either hand, etc...

The photo is right side up on my iPad, but I suspect I took the picture in a "left handed" mode.

[Barry Richardson]

I would check out the people who make military coins. When I was a Command Master Chief in the Navy, I had to order some. Sent a jpeg to a guy in Korea and he cranked them out (cast brass) in a couple of weeks. About 3$ each at that time (2001) and the price was for 100. Don't have the guys contact info any more, but google should turn up plenty of people who do it, mostly all overseas....