Signitures and Mei I have used over the years.

Early on when I first started signing my work I used a rotary to cut in my initials PJH into the metal. At first is were very blocky primitive looking letters. Thankfully there are very few pieces signed with this one. It was not long before I put a little more flare into it. I turned all the straight lines into curves, ran the lines over each other, and turned it all on end. The result was something that vaguely had a Japanese feel to it. I used this as my signiture exclusively until 2005.

I went to train with Ford Hallam in 2005. As part of my training I had to sign my practice Tsuba with a real Japanese mei. So after some discussion Ford bestowed upon me the art name Takagi. The literal translation would be something like "tall spirit". The conotations of the meaning are deeper than that of course. So my regular signiture became the two Kanji for Takagi. I typically apply this Mei (signiture) KataKiri style. as seen below. I use it mostly on Tsuba and Fuchi.

I also use a Kao that Ford designed for me during my training. It is a primitive version of the two kanji in Takagi. The original was framed in and meant to look like a goopy ink seal. There are globs of gold raised above the surface that represent the ink. This was the very first one I did. It is gold wire inlayed into iron. The one on the right is silver wire inlayed into iron.

       
Although I have most frequently done this with iron and gold I have done it with other combinations. Like this copper piece with shakudo wire inlay.

I like to be creative with my signitures. It is not uncommon to find that I have signed the back side of a Tsuba rather than the front. It really depends on how I want to signiture to interact with a particular design. Sometimes it just does not look good to me to have some kanji on the front. The example below is a work in progress. I am useing my kao as the focal point for the back side decoration on this Tsuba.


For this Kao I  am useing a bladed tool similar to a sharpened screwdriver and a Matte textured punch. This technique really simple. The bladed tool is driven down into the steel creating a split. This is then relieved by driving the tool in angled left then right. The wire is layed in the resulting undercut channel and hammered with the Punch. A Hisage is used to scrape it down and there you go.