Mark Making - Basil & Mary Walker (1993)

[@larsfrandsen2501]

Beautiful film! The whole series is just great! Thanks for making this document.

[@MarkMcCluney]

Can't imagine how the algorithm sent this my way but I'm certainly glad it did - this is utterly fascinating, I'd never even thought of how this might be done before. Thanks so much to everyone involved in preserving Basil and Mary's craft.

[@nigelparker5886]

The feel in those hands responding to the judgement of the eye, through the knowledge of the brain! Just sublime! Love it, and whilst I’m a time served toolmaker, I’d have struggled to emulate this! Cheers

[@ChrisBarnard-vd2fj]

Fantastic, such skill and dedication, thank you for sharing 😊

[@openclockclubarchive325]

Love the hardening and tempering in one. Very efficient

[@GT380man]

Yes, that was clever, wasn’t it, and involved the skill of the craftsman, knowing not to overheat the metal but to harden the surface by water quenching to form small crystals, while visually waiting for the straw colour of the steel, after slight cleaning, telling him he’d hit the mark on temperature (straw being less than blue on the heat scale). I would have neither the patience to learn the craft, nor to use it. Mind you, how many makers of marks could one city support? It’d depend upon how many new master craftsmen who warranted a mark of their own arise each year. If the mark maker can make one mark per day, a few hundred yearly. I’m pretty sure those days were a very long time ago. I like working with my hands and can be very patient and persistent, but I have to see that I’m progressing. The use of tiny chisels, then files and engraving tools, all while using a magnifying glass or wearing magnifiers, is a test of any person. Now, it’s CNC all the way.

[@SusanPearce_H]

Might I suggest that explore the video series by Dan Gelbart.

[@fernandochavez4312]

Enjoyed this film so much. Thank you for allowing someone to document your master level craft.

[@tresparivet6348]

I'm hooked on this channel good and proper. In the 70's I was organising roofing works on factories in England and visited so many old factories with fabrication works going on inside like shown in this series. I got lost in Sheffield every single time, even with an A to Z of Sheffield.

[@oldgiapetto]

Simply amazing. I had a name stamp made about 40 years ago, at great expense for an apprentice violin maker. I still have it, and now I'm in even more awe of it and its maker.

[@CleaveMountaineering]

Fascinating, meticulous detail carving of metal. I've been wondering how to make my own makers mark and this looks like just the thing!

[@grizcuz]

I can barely write as neatly as Basil's makers mark. Mindblowing how much skill it must've taken to do it as neatly as that, even with magnification.

[@walterluus6174]

Amazing. Thank you!

[@brianburke2140]

I just had a custom mark made for myself. I am a miniature artist and have handwritten my signature for decades wishing to have one. This film was awesome and a credit to their skills and trade-craft. I spent forty years as a Union SignPainter. I watched the transition from oil-based lettering enamel paints backing up gold-leafed office door signage to digitally printed vinyl stickers with which we wrapped busses, jet airliners, and convention centers. #artsaveslives #honorlabor

[@GT380man]

I really thoroughly enjoyed watching & listening to the making of the mark.

[@openclockclubarchive325]

Crazy. Beautiful work. Inspiring

[@diabolicalartificer]

I'm enjoying this series of video's, the level of craftmanship shown, is superb.Basil makes it look so easy, but as those who use their hands know, his skill is evident. I left school in the early 80's & worked briefly in fitting shops in Nottinghamshire at a lace factory & a spring manufacturer. The blokes then had similar skills, the workshop's the same appearance as those shown in this series. The industrial revolution started in England & Europe, these men & their skills were honed over decades , centuries of knowledge passed on. They were the last of the men who worked in fabrication & tool making. I didn't know it then, but they would soon be gone. Ken fortunately recorded the last dying breaths of centuries old traditions & engineering. I know I'm not the only one who feels immense sadness of their passing & the decimation of our industrial heritage & that way of life. Things change, but I'll never forgive the way our manufacturing industries were obliterated by money men in London & politician's like Thatcher. It's disappearance is our loss, humanity is poorer as a result. A CNC machine can make similar parts quicker, but they haven't the quality & the same feel in the hand as a human made tool. now it's all plastic crap that lasts no time at all.

[@zen4men]

The EU made it impossible to protect industries, and cheap Far East imports drove many businesses out of business. But I also regret the loss of skills. And the loss of social meaning between people. The nonstop attacks upon social cohesion as an act of political will continue to this day, as Global Capitalism and Global Marxism battle it out. / The Marxists stopped me from ever employing anyone, when my family employed for generations. Apparently university-trained graduates sitting in offices can do these things better! The "create" jobs - at extortionate cost. And the moment the grants dry up, the business folds or moves. Old-style families ran businesses for generqations - all swept away by London. /

[@andykjohnsonjohnson7622]

A dieing trade that should never be forgotten. As we rely on technology to much now. Machines are taking over are lives . First it was the didacticul watch, now cell phones, children that can't even read the time . From a old analog clock.

[@smfield]

Extravagant brilliance!

[@oldergeologist]

True craftsmanship.

[@yorkshirejoinery2869]

Very skilful, enjoy seeing a pantograph being used!

[@musamor75]

God bless you dear soul, for even knowing the word "pantograph". What a marvellous invention; simple geometry, that works.

[@chapiit08]

I stopped once at a stamp engraver's shop to get a quote, we ended up chatting about his work and he led me in to his workbench where he showed to me the work he was doing on a knifemaker's stamp made of Special K steel. He was an older man then some 18 years ago but it brought me statisfaction when passing by his shop not long ago to see that he was still there, this time supervising the work of a younger man at the bench. I'm aware that nowadays EDM machining does much of the work on mark engraving, but I understand that some finishing work still has to be performed by the hands of a skilled craftsman.

[@andresluqueruiz7318]

Thanks from Spain!!

[@chapiit08]

Eugenio Monesma channel portrays craftsmen showing old and largely lost trades in Spain.

[@campbellmorrison8540]

Wow freehanding letters in reverse and getting them spot on, incredible.

[@Thom4ES]

One of the tricks is knowing all the things that are likely to go wrong , and how to cheat - make good corrections...and the unlikely ones too.

[@joejoejoejoejoejoe4391]

Anyone who's used letter punches, knows how difficult it is just to get the spacing right between the different letters. Just an old guy, in a dark cramped workshop, with a messy workbench but the standard of his work speaks for itself.

[@SusanPearce_H]

CNC machines have rendered this skilled trade obsolete.

[@alo1236546]

In Japan there are hanko stamp for company/person signature

[@allangibson8494]

Carving limestone, marble or jade is somewhat easier than steel… (I have my own Hanko stamp from some work I did in Asia…).

[@chriswalford4161]

So the Eclipse letter stamps I’ve got - would they have been made this way?

[@diggmore1362]

I remember making date stamps to go in dies to cast the date on the casting with a pantograph. nowhere near the skill that’s used here