Do you sign and date pieces?

[Joe A Faulkner]

I'm curious do you sign and date pieces that you make, and if so how? I've signed a few pieces with a permanent marker in an inconspicuous place. Usually my name, city, state and date.

Do you sign and date pieces and if so how? I've thought about engraving small metal plates that could be attached, but haven't gone to that much trouble.

[Doug Hepler]

Joe,

It depends on the piece. First, I have to want my mark on it. Second, I'll consider signing it if it's going to a friend or family member. My preferred method is woodburning with a "signing" tip. I use a cub cadet. The soldering iron styles that I tried never got hot enough. I have used a Dremel vibrating engraver. Sometimes, like you I just sign with a felt-tipped pen. I usually use a logo, which is a stylized version of my initials, with the year. For a longer discussion, please see: http://plaza.ufl.edu/chepler/Notes/Signing%20Your%20Work.pdf

Doug

[Andrew Hughes]

I don't need to I can recognize my work anywhere.:)

[Jim Koepke]

Sometimes yes and sometimes no. It may depend on the piece or the person it is for.

jtk

[Frederick Skelly]

Some pieces. I make a very simple toddler chair as a baby gift, usually given for their first birthday. I build them with the thought that the boy or girl may one day pass it on the their own children. So I print my name, city/state and identify who I am - cousin, friend of Mom or Dad - on the seat, under the upholstery. Then, I sign/date it and put a poly finish over it to protect it from abrasion.

[Bob Glenn]

Are you kidding? I just try to hide the incriminating evidence!

[george wilson]

We HAD to sign tools made in our shop, stamped deeply on the blade ramps of planes , or in a 19th. C. type of way in order for them to NOT become "antiques" after several years' use. It has happened sometimes that a donor or a seller would offer to the museum a piece that had been made there years ago. Either innocently, or could be in a case of fraudulent behavior. Our silversmith found a coffee pot in Maryland labeled "English 18th C.,polished so often that the stamps had been worn off". He had made that pot himself 20 years earlier. Of course it did no good to try to persuade the shop's owner!!

As far as musical instruments were concerned, it has always been traditional to have a label inside violins or finer classical guitars, or displayed on the peghead on "American" style instruments, and electrics. I have never signed work benches I made, unfortunately. It seems that there are so many new people in the museum, there aren't too many who still know me, after retiring in 2009 ! Sign your work, or the same thing will surely and SOON become like that!:)

BUY the way.SAVE money. Gone are the days when you could expect to join a large organization, spend 40 years there , and get a decent retirement, as I was fortunate to do. Layoffs keep on happening as the bean counters are given more power.

[Rob Luter]

Yup. I sign and date the back or bottom of everything I make.

[Raymond Seward]

Yup. I sign and date the back or bottom of everything I make.

I do this as well...

[Sean Hughto]

Yes. Wood burner. Colwood.

353810

[Dan Hulbert]

Always, well since about 97 anyway. I to have stylized my initials and include the year. Most of my stuff is gifts for family and friends. I use a wood burner and mark in an inconspicuous place.

[glenn bradley]

Felt pen or, in the case of dark woods, a white paint pen. I started a sort of tradition with pieces made for family members and sink a penny with the date into some place inconspicuous.

353814

[al heitz]

Just a stylized monogam and the year with a black Sharpie in an inconspicuous place. Not out of pride, but to recall years later who the gift was from and what the occasion was.

[Tom Vanzant]

Everything is stamped with a "handcrafted by..." brand, with added fine-tipped marks-a-lot dates and personalized notes as appropriate.

[John Goodrich]

I initial and date everything with a wood burner. Even if it is a practice piece it will give me a reference for the future to see if I'm improving.

[Patrick Chase]

I'm curious do you sign and date pieces that you make, and if so how? I've signed a few pieces with a permanent marker in an inconspicuous place. Usually my name, city, state and date.

Do you sign and date pieces and if so how? I've thought about engraving small metal plates that could be attached, but haven't gone to that much trouble.

Not unless somebody really insists (and if they do I may question their sense of aesthetics :-). For that matter I resisted signing my own photos for a long time, and I'm a better photographer than I am a woodworker.

I think this is one of those things where there's no clearly right or wrong answer, though. My take is that signing is for master-level pieces FWIW. If/when I produce one I'll sign it.

[ken hatch]

Not unless somebody really insists (and if they do I may question their sense of aesthetics :-). For that matter I resisted signing my own photos for a long time, and I'm a better photographer than I am a woodworker.

I think this is one of those things where there's no clearly right or wrong answer, though. My take is that signing is for master-level pieces FWIW. If/when I produce one I'll sign it.

4X5 or 8X10 landscapes? I could be wrong but I'll bet not 35mm street work. :)

ken

[Andy Nichols]

I think about how excited I am to find some note, signature and/or date on any item, really makes no difference if it's a collectors item or a simple cabinet...it provides some sort of connection/history to that item.

Have an old Delta unisaw 1940s model and found a package taped to the inside of the cabinet, listed the saws original purchaser with date and time he replaced the bearings

Then when we were redoing our house, it's a 1890's German settlers stone house, I was cleaning the paint off of a long leaf pine 4x4 wall stud to use on my workbench build, and writing appears under the paint "Captain Steeler" he's the man that built our house as his retirement home close to town, and one of the first European settlers to this area, and the most famous. What a find!

I'm always left wishing there was more info, so yes I sign date and put location.....



-- mos maiorum

[Brian Brightwell]

Felt pen or, in the case of dark woods, a white paint pen. I started a sort of tradition with pieces made for family members and sink a penny with the date into some place inconspicuous.

353814
That is a classy way to do it.:)

[Lee Schierer]

I try to sign and date all my wood working pieces. I have a branding iron and I recess a penny of the current year, so the date shows, in an inconspicuous spot.

[Patrick Chase]

4X5 or 8X10 landscapes? I could be wrong but I'll bet not 35mm street work. :)

ken

Mostly 4x5 stills and landscapes. I've started using tilt-shift lenses on digital lately.

[Mike Allen1010]

Felt pen or, in the case of dark woods, a white paint pen. I started a sort of tradition with pieces made for family members and sink a penny with the date into some place inconspicuous.

353814


Very cool-great idea!

All my stuff is for friends and family, I'm not a professional, but I do write my name and date with a sharpie somewhere inconspicuous. I confess I like the idea that somewhere down the road when I'm long gone someone will see the name and date and think about our family history.


I've built a several pieces of furniture for our 2 boys, and they always like me to include a hidden compartment. I write them a sappy note about how much I love them and leave it in there. Yup, I usually get a little misty doing it, but I'm cool with that – it's a father/son thing. Besides, my boys know I always cry at that scene in Field of Dreams where the main character plays catch with his Dad. Come on, are you going to tell me you don't?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wnD6jxREU

The hidden note is my favorite part!


Best, Mike

[Andrew Gibson]

I always sign and date my work, within reason. I don't sign things like clamp racks and shop furniture, or cutting boards as I consider these consumables. I do sign pieces I consider permanent. I have a handful of tools and odds and ends from my grandfather, great grandfather, and even great great grandfather. Though they are not signed they have great sentimental value.
If I were to have something that they made it would mean even more had they signed it.
I sign and date with the year of completion. Who knows one day a pieces of mine may get brought into the Antiques Roadshow and the furniture appraiser will get really excited... Hay, it could happen.

[Jim Koepke]

Who knows one day a pieces of mine may get brought into the Antiques Roadshow and the furniture appraiser will get really excited...

Rest assured many share the same dream.

jtk

[ken hatch]

Mostly 4x5 stills and landscapes. I've started using tilt-shift lenses on digital lately.

Thanks Patrick,

That's what I figured. At one time I ran the Houston Center for Photography Print auction and was on the Board of Directors. Been there and done that.

ken

[Patrick Chase]

Thanks Patrick,

That's what I figured. At one time I ran the Houston Center for Photography Print auction and was on the Board of Directors. Been there and done that.

ken

I'm not at all surprised to find another neander with that background.

Bringing this back marginally on topic, I like view camera photography for some of the same reasons I like hand-tool woodworking. They both allow the artist a very high degree of control, in both obvious and subtle ways. Both eschew automation. They both reward investment in developing foundational skills, and neither comes very easily. I know that some people like both view camera photography and neander woodworking because of their traditional nature, though that isn't so much an appeal for me personally (in yet another parallel I use an Arca-Swiss monorail view camera as well as modern hand tools).

As with woodworking I'm not a purist. For the last couple decades my "other camera" has always been some sort of Canon 1-series body (originally film, most recently a 1Dx II), which I use for "things that move", like sports. For whatever reason I've never really gotten into anything in between.

[Steve Beadle]

If the project merits, you can also have a local trophy shop make you a nice (etched?) brass plate with whatever information you want included. But most of the time I just use metal stamps to put my name, date, etc. Then I fill in the stamped letters and numbers with a fine Sharpie and put finish over it.

[lowell holmes]

I do sign and date pieces made for family members. Not so much for others.

[Jerry Olexa]

My wife bought me a branding iron type labeler a few years ago . I generally forget to do it on furniture pieces I have built and remember after the furniture is already in one of my family members homes ...it's a nice idea to do .. I think she got it from Rockler

[Roy Lindberry]

I'm curious do you sign and date pieces that you make, and if so how? I've signed a few pieces with a permanent marker in an inconspicuous place. Usually my name, city, state and date.

Do you sign and date pieces and if so how? I've thought about engraving small metal plates that could be attached, but haven't gone to that much trouble.

I have a set of letter stamps, so I generally find an inconspicuous piece of end grain where I will generally stamp my initials and the year.

[jeffrey bailey]

I usually use a branding iron on the boxes I make. I just made one that is too small for the iron. I am going to use an India ink pen. My question is, sign it before finish or after? I finish the boxes with Danish oil.

[Jeff Heath]

A simple branding iron with my name on it, and date stamped right next to it. All on the bottom of a piece in an inconspicuous location.

[Brian Henderson]

I never do. I know I made it.

[Ted Phillips]

I do this, too! The only problem is that many years, the pennies with current year markings don't appear until midway through the year. I haven't seen any 2018 pennies in circulation yet this year, for instance...

I sometimes fall back on using nickles instead - and bought a special forstner bit just for them (its an odd size, I'll have to go look it up...)

TedP

[Chet R Parks]

I never do either. I don't want anybody to know I made that thing.

[ernest dubois]

Sometimes I do it, yes.
379302

[Todd Stock]

Always for new work and never for repair. An initial stamp on end grain for furniture and paper label on instruments (100% rag, acid-free paper with Krylon Preserve It! & 3M 77 attachment).

[Todd Stock]

Always nice to see a vintage article I worked on advertised as not having been repaired...usually generates a call or note with correction to the listing person or company.

In addition to saving money, collect skills, experience, and relevant education that others lack in fields that are marketable and of interest, and expect to have a couple of careers on the way to the slight slowing down that now marks retirement. Maintain a good resume and a better portfolio.

[ernest dubois]

Always nice to see a vintage article I worked on advertised as not having been repaired...usually generates a call or note with correction to the listing person or company.

In addition to saving money, collect skills, experience, and relevant education that others lack in fields that are marketable and of interest, and expect to have a couple of careers on the way to the slight slowing down that now marks retirement. Maintain a good resume and a better portfolio.
Thanks, I hadn't thought of that.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Have never signed, but wish I would have dated and marked the finish used.

[Jeff Ranck]

404 on the link you posted

[ernest dubois]

I am called DuBois, and I will be walking your streets soon, Provo, UT ^^

[Barry Richardson]

I sign everything, but don't put a date unless it is a gift. I sell a lot of stuff, and if it takes a couple of years to sell, the date, well...... dates it. I find that my customers seem to want my latest stuff, and an old date indicates to them it has been passed over before.....

[Zach Dillinger]

I usually sign and date each drawer bottom with chalk per several 18th century pieces I've studied. For a more indelible solution, I also stamp my name in several inconspicuous places inside the case to ensure that my work doesn't magically become an antique in a few years.