Japanese Mum Luger

[Rick W.]

I think that firearm marking has come a long ways in method and supporting mediums. Stamping, engraving, chemical etching, lasers etc.

With reference to making a mark with a handstamp and hammer, making a consistent depth of mark of a flat stamp onto a curved surface comes up. Speciality stamps and rolling tooling obviously exists, but the old flat face stamps still persist in the custom industry.

I was taught to mark the area of application, some use masking tape, some use other mediums as perhaps magic marker. Tis done I guess to provide alignment of said mark. Hard to retreat gracefully from the first blow and depression of steel.

The stamp would be placed where you want it. Then a solid first blow to the stamp upon the curved surface, say barrel. This makes an uneven depth of mark, deeper in the middle than on the sides.

The stamp is carefully(very) laid into the first movement of metal, the stamp is then tilted towards the shallow side of the mark, and struck again. This is repeated around the perimeter of stamping mark(shallow sides), by angling the stamp off the original first struck axis. A solid hold of the barrel is important. Touch for control of depth comes with the skill level for such, handwork that is worthwhile always takes time in grade.

With care, the stamping will be consistent in depth over the curved surface. Once done with the hammering/swaging of metal. the upward metal edges are either draw filed down to the surface or some will just mount in a lathe and work that way during polishing of the curved surface for colorization or just polish.

Other methods are out there as well, but the above is a simplistic approach that takes some touch for a nice result.

FWIW............