Help! I can't draw.......

[Nobody Special]

Help! I've got a cool idea for a touchmark, but can't make a straight line with a ruler. After redrawing this is the best I can do.



Can anybody do a quick touchup to something that's reproducable on a punch? The YBF is for Yardbird Forge. (yes, I know yardbird is one word, just like the look of the letters this way, but wouldn't mind YF either if it looks right.)


And now the darn things sideways.....sigh.

[Chinobi]

got a relative size in mind? you might have a cleaner image if you go for a stylized rooster rather than such a literal outline with so much detail.  i can take a swing at it in autocad tomorrow during lunch if i remember/have time/nobody beats me to it.  also do you have any preferences for how the anvil should look (IE thick heel like a brooks, narrow waisted farrier, etc) or just cartoon?

[Nobody Special]

Awesome, stylized is fine. Willing to sacrifice detail for clarity. Was just hoping for a clean enough design to put on small pieces like knives, hooks, bbq forks, etc. Maybe a couple of sizes. I just can't even draw that much of a chicken without putting in some extra lines to keep it from coming out like a lump of oatmeal.

 

As an anvils go, ummm, London pattern, no really thin waist, more peter wrightish, normal taper to heel, horn flat on top.  For chickens, rooster, not hen. Thinking one shaped like a Jersey Giant or a Rhode Island Red. Hard to explain the look, but they feel a lot different than say an Auracana or a Polish.

 

There's no kinda hurry, I really appreciate it. Been thinking about making or getting one for awhile, and I really, really can't draw the design to send in or work from.

[lupiphile]

Do you ever make shop drawings? That doesn't really look that bad, you just need to refine it. Even when I'm designing large intricate projects (gates, Railings, yellin-y stuff) I start with drawings like that. Then I tape it to the drafting table and out comes the trusty roll of tracing paper. It's really about the cheapest paper a person can by so don't be intimidated about walking it to art supply store and having them burn your wallet at the stake, like can definitely happen with other drafting supplies. you put a piece of tracing paper over you original and go over the whole thing using your sketchy sketch as a guide. if its better do the same thing with your refined sketch, if its worse throw it away or erase the areas you dislike. tracing paper erases very cleanly. I erase so much I actually have an automatic eraser. its a god send and only cost 6 bucks from dick blick. I do that 3 or 4 times and I have a drawing thats ready to be shaded, though that seems like a non issue in your case. I'd encourage you to go through the process, after you become comfortable with drawing( notice I said comfortable with,, not good at) your forge work will become much, much better. And hell. for the last month and a half or so I've made more money selling drawings of my ironwork than selling ironwork, I'd like to think those drawing shall turn into actual jobs but I've been paid either way, and I don't even have any injuries to show for it. Take care, Matt

[billyO]

Good suggestion, Matt.  A trick I've used a few times (and need to use more often) comes from my old school days 40 years or so past, and one of the good lasting things from my ex (second only to the "ex" part <_< ) is an overhead projector.  Works great for grills and gates.  You can use any size sketch pad, make as detailed a sketch as you want, trace with the clear overhead screen, then project/trasnsfer onto a board that's as close as needed to make a full sized version.

[Nobody Special]

Thanks to both of you,

 

I'm trying a variation on your suggestion, Billy.  I don't have a projector handy, but......playing with photos on powerpoint, blowing 'em up, and tracing them is similar, and working pretty well. I like it and may start looking for an old projector when i go to auctions. (thanks also to Stan aka trying it who suggested something similar.)

[Rich Hale]

In order to be legible when stamped into metal that stamp would really have to be smacked hard. To make an impression with something that large will require a lot of psI applied. That could be reduced if you shrink the size a lot but then I doubt if the impression will look like you wish.

Forge some spring steel into very simple shapes of various sizes and stamp them into hot mild steel to see wot I am getting at. For instance a center punch, a round punch with a quarter inch flat circle shape on the tip,,,another with three eights, etc,,,that will give you a feel for wot you can design that will work.

I do wonder al ittle bit aboiut how you will fashion tool steel into a shape for this stamp. If you contact places that make touchmarks and discuss it they will advise on design and work out something usable. They will not do this for bargain basement price.

[Chinobi]

baaahhhahaha omg are you sure you don't want a polish? XD that is the best bird-fro ever!

[Chinobi]

rats, overshot my edit window.

 

heres a PDF of it that is drawn in a 6"x6" box, that way it can be scaled down to any size and the relative image quality will only improve.  if you start small and increase the size all your little errors, shakes, and pixels become BIG and the image quality goes out the window.

 

anyway, I was shooting for it to be visible if produced on a 1/2" square punch (12x reduction).

 

I was looking at ways to superimpose the anvil on top of the rooster, or put the tail plume off the heel or out of the hardie and the wattles on the horn, but it was getting kinda sloppy and I ran outa time =/

 

let me know if you like, or dislike anything.  I saved the cad file so I can edit it indefinitely.  also I just ran it out as a pdf because its quick, if you want a jpeg or whatever at some other size let me know and I can get to that after work.

 

enjoy :)

 

Yardbird Forge Touchmark 6in.pdf

 

edit: further thought, if you want the lettering to be larger relative to everything to make it more legible there is plenty of space outside of the outlines to put characters.  for instance, Y low and left of the anvil below the horn, B in the waist towards the face, F under the heel on the right.  or perhaps Y above the horn, B in the chicken, and F just above the heel.

food for thought.

[pjh66]

For blades & some other more delicate items you might consider electro chemical etching them instead of a punch. IMHO they both have their pros & cons

 

Peter

[Chinobi]

yep, that could work too, get a few hundred printed on some vinyl stickers and go from there.

'?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> for example

 

and I cant for the life of me find a thread that I feel like I saw very recently about etching touchmarks into finished blades.  IIRC the knife in the pictures was a really slick looking stainless blade and handle forged from a single piece.  the author mentioned taking their touchmark icon to a print shop and having to get a few hundred to meet the minimum for a custom order. they were using a battery charger and q-tips held in jumper cable type clamps as leads and recommended using a copper clamp to attach to the piece to avoid/mitigate any scratching.

 

but maybe im just going nuts....

[yahoo2]

how bout half letters half chook? that would get it real compact

[Chinobi]

good thought yahoo, the natural form of the letters would lend itself to being drawn into the image of an anvil, left arm of the Y becomes the horn, top bar of the F becomes the heel.

 

of course, its NS's touchmark, so his call :)

[neg]

how bout half letters half chook? that would get it real compact

rooster yard bird2.jpg

Really nice! I like this one best. :D

[yahoo2]

version 2 tougher lookin rooster

 

 

that about as good as I can do for something that small, he needs a neck ruffle but I cant get them to look right

 

type is century

[yahoo2]

 

more rooster-y,  bigger comb longer wattle, last one ...promise!

 

My thinking here is that the forged object itself makes it obvious that its blacksmiths work, so I left the anvil out.

 

A full detailed rooster on an anvil would probably make a great logo or embroidered shirt pocket. And the full YARDBIRD FORGE name could be used.

[Judson Yaggy]

With a name like that you will need to put a weathervane like this on your shop!

[Nobody Special]

Wow......that's impressive. S'better by far than what I came up with. The beer's in the mail. :) Dunno, yahoo's rooster 3 has got attitude. Possibly that as a touchmark, and chinobi's as a logo? Maybe vice versa? Like them both. I'll have to try them out and see how they look in metal. Wicked cool art.

 

Cool idea on the electrochemical etch. I've messed with electroplating a little, but never tried that. I'll search the forums.

 

Judson, cool rooster. We're starting to have chicken decorations coming out of our ears though.

[Chinobi]

one has to be careful of associating oneself too closely with a particular animal :) my fiancé's cousin (I forget exactly how) ended up associated with elk/moose, and now she has a full wall bookcase floor to ceiling packed with all variants of elk, stuffed, porcelain, etc.  so choose wisely :)

 

hope you can get some good use from the images, no worries if not :)

[yahoo2]

 

NS I cant do you a proper vector image that can be re-sized, I don't have the software,  these are just rough ideas I stitched together while I am layed up with the flu. I'm sure there is someone around that can design you something with some polish about it.

 

Here is another from the pile. I rejected it because the chickens face is too small for a touchmark, I don't think the beak would come out, but the layout looks OK

[IronQueen]

With chemical etching instead of stamping, you could also use the technique of stoppings-out to get different shades of light and depth in the metal, to really give it a 3D look. I've noticed one problem is that the image is rather small. Not sure you can do this on your own, but there are companies out there that can mass produce very intricately detailed chemically etched metal parts. I did a quick Google search for chemical etching metal and found this one listed at the top: http://www.fotofab.com/cmp_advantage.php.