First up; I hate inlays. There, I've said it. I've have no problem with other people doing them, but I don't even want to commit time to thinking about them. They're fiddly and ultimately mostly useless in playing terms. And I'm a 'function over form' guy til the last. I don't even do fingerboard dot markers coz who can see them when they're playing? I do side markers though. Side markers are easy. However, being that I didn't want to inlay anything and I can't use decals, coz I use oil finishes strictly (I hate spray paint too). So it left me in a bind as to what to do for a logo... which I badly need to sort out. I looked into letters, but for I wanted, the greek letter Psi, it was going to be exy... I don't do exy either.
So I got to think, what about a branded marked ala Carl Thompson. Off into the shed and I grabbed some old steel tube and some flat bar. 15min of cutting, filing and welding had this. Sorry for the dodgy phone pics.
Then it was testing time. My wife was understandably concerned to see me heating up a bit of metal over the gas hob in the kitchen. Something about, "setting the house on fire". I was hoping to get the metal red hot on the hob. Mmm, not so lucky. I did get it hot enough to get these mark on some pine and some vic ash.
I think the iron still needs some more work. The upright in the centre is too long and I'll file it down some. Anyhow, even if I ended up build new one, I reckon it's a good start.
