![stamp.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcba6BXmr5uqerpsZY5YEnkHKaYNiomH77S619vEJM5zF/stamp.jpg) My girlfriend's father is a blacksmith. He had no touchmark to stamp his finished creations (mostly knives and tools) in order to "sign" them, so I took it upon myself to design him a logo. We had a touch mark stamp made for him and we recently received it. I am very happy with the results His favorite poem is "The Village Blacksmith" by Longfellow which begins with the stanza: >>Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands. He also has a Chestnut tree outside of his smithy in North Carolina, so I took inspiration from that and set to work, making a number of small quick sketches using acorns, chestnut leaves, and his initials "T.C." ![sketch.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRbS26cDdh8CR2tWTuB7U6f9yuxUDap6x7qSD5fGMGQVX/sketch.jpg) I then refined and combined the strongest ideas and some typography into a simple, icon-like vector logo using adobe illustrator. I couldn't get too complex because this needed to be able to fit on the blade of a knife and be stamped into metal after-all! ![logo-small.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR6uTpMiTH2bxvcjMMFVxq3uh3ufeb3yRLUykggUiViCm/logo-small.jpg) We then sent off this file to a blacksmith supply company to do their magic and a few weeks later, a touch mark stamp arrived in the mail. Dad is all ready to sign his work! ![stamp2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSAREUzNfG9DBiNgcDqWUCq8VmGqUtWcEPCnwaN2oWpRn/stamp2.jpg) I'm very happy with the end result and so is my girlfriend's dad. It's always a good thing when you can impress the parent of the one you love 😉![2017-08-21.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSFfqftWnWu84nciTDfa3UqJ2SbeRP8U4UUUgoYq3WkFu/2017-08-21.jpg)

If you'd like me to help design something, please leave a reply and let me know!

**Thanks for checking me out. Keep up the good fight!** ![DQmfQQfJb3ELZK9RxZkJ9KYQGf8AGvxB6R1wa68A4HoA9eP.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfQQfJb3ELZK9RxZkJ9KYQGf8AGvxB6R1wa68A4HoA9eP/DQmfQQfJb3ELZK9RxZkJ9KYQGf8AGvxB6R1wa68A4HoA9eP.gif)

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