Be Better at Branding

Pretty popular way to mark projects once you're done with them and proud of them is to use a brand. And I want to give you a couple of tips about making your brands come out better. So first thing I'm gonna do here, I'm heating this up, obviously and I'm going to just brand my maple now, a couple of things and we're gonna fix these couple of things when you approach your work with the brand and you're just gonna plunk it down, it could end up kind of willy nilly. This GJV of mine has got a pretty distinct vertical on it. So if I want that vertical to align with the wood, I gotta be careful about that. Also, it's a little smeary. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's so hot that it loses some of the distinction around the edges. Yes, I can sand this. I can get this burn off of the surface, but let's work harder to make it come out better right from the start. So one thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take that frame and I'm gonna secure that to the work. All it is is a piece of red oak. I cut that notch out of it. You're gonna position this where you want the brand to go. Now let me get a little more heat on that brand to make sure it's hot enough. And then I'm gonna come back and show you a tip number dose. All right, we got heat. Yes, we do. Now, the other thing I'm gonna do, I've got my frame in place. I'm gonna spritz. This is water, use the frame to register the brand. Look at how much more crisp that is here compared to here. We don't have the Mudge edges, you know, we don't have the blurry edges. There's less burn on the surface. So there's less sanding to do on this one than on this one. The other benefits of the frame now that I'm looking at this is that the very end of the V is a little indistinct. The side of the G is a little indistinct as long as the frame is there. If I need to come back, rebrand, you can and you can hit that same spot when you have nothing locating you and you're trying to set down in the exact same G JB. It's gonna be impossible to hit the same spot twice. So the frame gives you the benefit of location, location, location of, you know, making sure that your brand comes out straight and repeatability. If you need to hit it again, the water gives you the benefit of just a cleaner crisper brand when you're done.