Branding a Headstock Logo

I decided to try out a new type of logo application the other day: using a branding iron to burn the logo into my maple headstock guitars. The two main types of wood branding irons out there are electric irons and fire-heated irons. Electric irons are connected to a heating element that you can plug into the wall, while the more traditional style fire-heated irons must be heated externally with a torch. I opted for the traditional style (mainly due to price). I quickly discovered the challenges that come with this type of iron.

Trying for consistency… I used this piece of maple to test the heating time for the branding iron. Fire-heated irons require precise timing and consistent heat throughout the branding head to get a consistent brand.

After lots of testing, I realized that the heat-fired iron was just too inconsistent to use on the headstock itself. I ended up finding a maple cutoff from this neck and made several attempts on that before achieving the result I wanted. Since the design was exactly 1” wide, I used a 1” forstner bit to make a recess in the headstock. Then I cut out the brand in the maple cutoff, sanded it into a perfect 1” circle, and inlaid it into the headstock. Above is the final placement on a PM Custom T Deluxe headstock.

After final sanding, finishing, and stringing up, the finished product.