Hi all,

I am now ready to get a Makers Mark for stamping my leather holsters and I need some help.

Request:

Design me a makers mark for Side Guard Holsters. General ideas I have are a Shield of some sort with SGH in the middle but please be creative. Size can scale down to about inch x inch.

What you will get if I choose your design:

Custom rig with any holster and double mag or single mag or light/mag or speed pouch items I make.

Post here your high level design.

Thanks...

Is there certain style you are looking for for the letters?

I'm open to almost anything but the mark needs to be able to be punched easily. So limit the cursive writing as an example.

How large do you want the punch to be? 1 inch diameter, 1/2", 1/4"?
Let me know if you need someone to make the actual physical punch.

EDIT:Oooops, just noticed you did state the size in your post.

Idea... I like the shield. morph the bottom of a standard shield with the outline of the state of MN or maybe a superposition. I think the arrowhead is pretty identifiable.

I made this rough first approximation in some CAM software so the shapes would be machineable. It doesn't show real well when converted to bmp.

Is this the general idea you were looking for? Also, stamping into leather, how much detail do you think could be added and still show consistently?

*plblark whines yet again about his work filters

Especially when it's an image I think would be cool for a local custom holster guy who's not a complete tool

How about a shield with a "sash" across it bearing the initials. But the sash is raised and the letters are imprinted in it?

For example, in the images on the left, the darker color is the imprint. I put an embossed version of the image to the right right to show sort of what it would look like stamped with a light source at the left:
<img src="http://lh4.google.com/evaneaston/R4JPXtV3HFI/AAAAAAAAANM/16O3QoSvLz4/s288/SGHShield.png" /> <img src="http://lh4.google.com/evaneaston/R4JQKtV3HHI/AAAAAAAAANc/BOxAND6rqf0/s288/SGHShieldEmbossed.png" />

And you could accent it a little bit in the fields above and below the sash. I put a star on the top right as a simple example.

<img src="http://lh4.google.com/evaneaston/R4JPXtV3HGI/AAAAAAAAANU/O87S8tnZP-U/s288/SGHShieldWithStar.png" /> <img src="http://lh4.google.com/evaneaston/R4JQKtV3HII/AAAAAAAAANk/NX0qJ6JWt9U/s288/SGHShieldWithStarEmbossed.png" />

Lastly, if you think the design has legs, I can tweak the aspect ratio so it's not so tall and narrow. I also think the border of the shield at the top left and bottom right is a little thin for a good stamp, but I have limited time right now to screw around.

I would totally incorporate the state logo...but that's just me.

I know that you probably couldn't get all the flag detail in a stamping tool but it would be neat.

I think that looks GREAT!

Which?

I think Ree's shield looks great given Srigs' criteria.
I like the State outline with the flag in general. I think it's a neat effect.

Tweaked to widen the aspect ratio, added MN state as flair, changed impressions so that border, sash, and state outline are impressions and letters are actually raised.

<img src="http://lh3.google.com/evaneaston/R4KKpdV3HJI/AAAAAAAAANs/9iM5RPAuyCo/s288/SGHShieldB.png" /> <img src="http://lh4.google.com/evaneaston/R4KKptV3HKI/AAAAAAAAAN0/IzFJkpdW0m4/s288/SGHShieldBEmbossed.png" />

I'm not sure how you'd get a flag on a small stamp. I'm also, not certain that the shape of the shield looks quite right now that I widened it. But we could always experiment to find a slightly better shape.

How deep are we assuming the depth of the embossing will be in the leather? .015 - .030 or so? At a max of .030 it would be nice for the manufacture of the stamp to have lines or gaps at least 1/64+
Which would make the corner radii on any raised detail 1/128 (~.008), nearly a sharp corner to the eye.

If I were to make such a stamp, the process would be;
1) machine the desired outcome shape into a graphite tool
2) cut the mirror image into the tool steel stamp with the graphite tool