Do you sign and date pieces?

[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.

Attachment 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.

Attachment 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.