Making a branding iron for wood

[John K Jordan]

MAKING A BRANDING IRON for WOOD
John K Jordan

This is mostly metalworking but may be of interest to both round and flat wood people.

A friend wanted to give her father a branding iron for Christmas so he could burn his farm
brand into the bottom of bowls and things. I know you can order one but what fun is that?

I never tried making a branding iron. Half the fun is figuring out a plan of action. The
challenge is to make it work the first time instead of having to remake some part several times!

I had on hand some bronze slugs from the scrap metal yard. I turned one down to about 1"
diameter, beveled, drilled and tapped for the handle shaft, then parted off.

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I painted the working end white then used carbon paper to transfer the design. Flats milled
on the sides let me hold it securely in the vise. I cut away as much as I could with a 1/8"
end mill, leaving a wide logo about 1/8" high.

There were a bunch of angles - a laser center finder helped with the alignment.

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I used carbide bits in a Dremel and a file to carefully narrow the logo to a thin line on the
working end. This didn't take nearly as long as I imagined. Threads on the end of a 1/4"
mild steel rod made the shaft.

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In testing, the bronze held the heat well. After heating 60 seconds with a propane torch
we could brand at least six times before we had to add more heat.

We selected a piece of black cherry for the handle. The young woman got her first
woodturning lesson in roughing, shaping, drilling for the shaft, then sanding after I finished
turning it. Branded the handle itself then fastened with epoxy and it was done just in time
for Christmas. She was SO excited!

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Now I want to make one for me. :-)

JKJ

[Peter Blair]

Great thread John and wonderful christmas gift. I made one from brass when I was only using recycled material. It was the arrows in a circle. Looks nothing like the beautiful job you did on this one.
A couple of questions,
When you were using the end mill is it in a milling machine?
What shape of carbide bits did you use in the Dremel to do the final work?
Possibly the best part of this was that this young woman had her first experience with a wood lathe.

[Doug Ladendorf]

Very nice, I BET she was excited! You are on a roll John. Thanks again for sharing the process. You are making me want a small mill. :-)

Doug

[John K Jordan]

A couple of questions,
When you were using the end mill is it in a milling machine?
What shape of carbide bits did you use in the Dremel to do the final work?

Thanks!

Yes, I used my small milling machine. It's a HiTorque solid column mill from Little Machine Shop. That, plus the metal lathe, has opened new horizons for creating and repairing things. I've used it on metals, HDPE plastics, and wood. The two machines and all the accessories don't take up much space. The method I used could probably be done on a drill press with a good XY table and a rotating vise.

For shaping the bronze I started with a cylindrical about 1/8" in diameter then switched to a cone bit with a sharp point to get into the corners.

I ordered a pointed carbide bit for the mill. That might let me do most of the shaping by machine. Or maybe I should get a CNC mill...

JKJ

[Aaron Craven]

Really nice! I'm jealous!

I've been marking my work with a sharpie. I've been wanting to be able to brand instead with something like this. How is it heated? Open flame?

[John K Jordan]

You are making me want a small mill. :-)

A small mill (plus the lathe) has let me build and repair lots of things which would be hard to do any other way, in wood, plastic, brass, aluminum, and steel. But as I mentioned to someone else a mill is another slippery slope! Vises, hold downs, end mills, test indicators, center finders, fly cutters, parallel blocks, rotary table, reamers, height gauge, surface plate, micrometers, boring bar, precision squares, etc, etc, etc...

[John K Jordan]

Aaron, I heated it with a propane torch. The second time I tested it I counted the seconds. 30 seconds was not enough to scorch wood. 60 seconds was enough and with the mass of the bronze head I could get multiple brands before I had to stick it back into the frame. That's one advantage of having the metal thick (besides having enough depth to attach the shaft!)

JKJ

[Peter Blair]

Sure, I see no reason not to ad a CNC mill . . . Thanks for the information. Not sure I have the tools but I sure would like to try this method. Just checked my crystal ball and I see a good XY table and rotating vise in my future.