Logo engraving on the knife

Types of logo and engraving of the logo on the knife

A professional logo allows you to recognize the maker to whom it refers with almost immediate effect.

The task of the logo is to inspire trust and superiority over another logo and therefore compared to other makers .

There is also a tendency to accompany the logo with a slogan, called payoff, which helps to strengthen the identity of the brand (for example as Nike does – Just Do It) or in the case for example of hardening ovens such as the Rockblade.

There are different types of logos that can also be used simultaneously as part of the personal brand:

• Logotype: it is the graphic sign whose referent is a phonetic expression, it is a pronounceable written trademark, for example the “Wiki” logotype. In typography, the logotype is a unique font, in which several letters are fused together; so in publishing it is the set of intertwined letters consisting of the initials of the publisher’s name;
• Pictogram: it is an iconic sign whose referent is an object or a class of objects, an appearance or an action that the object can express;
• Ideogram: it is a non-iconic sign, or at least with a low degree of iconicity, and may therefore have no reference to reality (for example: the WWF panda or the Playboy bunny, do you like this more?).
• Monogram: is a unitary graphic symbol obtained by superimposing or otherwise combining two or more letters or other graphemes
• Many makers use their name and enough and often also the origin as in my case Andrea F, Turin (Italy)

In recent years the choice to use to indelibly mark on the metal names or symbols through stencils, acid and the passage of electric current has become increasingly popular.

Unlike punching, which is the result of a violent compression of the metal, here it is left to electricity the task of digging and blackening the mark outlined by the stencil, a rapid and totally safe process, less deep than punching

The advantages of chemical engraving

• The total absence of stress and tension given to the steel as it does not stress mechanically as with the punching of the steel of the blade.
• The possibility of inserting the logo in areas totally precluded to a punch as they are not flat, such as the ground curve of the bevelling, the coast or the back of the shank.
• The electro engraving takes place on the finished knife with the impossibility of ruining the logo or partially removing it during the finishing of the knife as can happen with punching.
• Cheap, probably yes if you already have some equipment and stencils cost less than a punch but it is a relative speech because it is still convenient to have both solutions if you make very different knives but it is a matter of taste and the level to which you want to push.

To engrave we use a stabilized power supply that has the ability to deliver both direct and alternating current, at a low voltage and amperage (12 Volts and about 1 or 3 Amps), it is no coincidence that some realize systems with simple circuits and batteries ..

The logo to be affixed to the blade is first made on a stencil of synthetic material with a procedure similar to that for screen printing frames that you have to make of those who make this type of products.

The final result is a small waterproof sheet where in the center stands our logo which, seen at a rather high magnification, will highlight some micro holes to allow the passage of electrolyte fluid and
of the current during engraving.

Surely for both the punching and for the chemical method the first few times you do a test on a blade that you already own and that you do not care if any sign remains, or on a “wrong” knife and that you keep there in the laboratories as an experience.