Making your mark
Do you sign your work? I nearly always do, but not always in the way you might think. At some point in almost every project I make, I sign it….
Do you sign your work? I nearly always do, but not always in the way you might think.
At some point in almost every project I make, I sign it. Im not really sure why, but I think its because it gives me one more way to make something, especially something Ive designed myself, a bit more personal to me. Something that marks it as being mine for all time.
Youll note above that I said almost every project. If a piece is destined to be temporary, I dont sign it. I never sign or mark one-time-only jigs, for example. The birdhouse book Im wrapping up has nearly 30 houses, far more than I can ever use or give away, so some of them I dismantled after all photography was done and reused the stock for different houses.
But for anything that is a permanent, finished work, I have my mark on it somewhere. Sometimes I sign my full name or just initial and date it in a place easily referenced, like the back of a clock or underside of a box. I do that most often when the item is a gift for someone I know.
Other times its hidden and likely never to be seen by anyone, such as underneath felt flocking on a box bottom or even inside a glued-up joint I write something on every tenon I make before gluing it into its mortise. Years ago when I made a floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcase/desk unit the full length of a wall in a previous home, I first put wood paneling up on the drywall as backing. Before that, I wrote on the wall a full description of the project and the circumstances we lived in Mobile, Ala., at the time, and my historical note, if I remember correctly, references hurricane Frederick, which had hit us the month before I started the project.
Other times, my mark is literally that: just a mark. A chisel mark or something similar that has nothing to do with the joinery or construction, but its a distinctive mark that Ill always recognize as being my final touch of the piece (if I can remember where I put it). In fact, I dont consider a piece done until my name, initials or mark is on it somewhere.
So, how about you? How, where and most importantly why do you make your mark?
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.