Anyone engrave their tools?

[torqueman2002]

I did engrave my CM -V- tools way back in the 70's when I worked in shops.

I wanted to be able to sort them out at the end of the day, because in one small shop, 3 guys, we often attacked a job as a team. We once dropped out a Bug engine in 12 mins.

I had some of those tools taken out of my car by a neighbor hood punk /puke. Years later, living in Rochester NY, I got a call from the Syracuse police. They had recovered 75% of my tools!

Now that I'm working on my own cars in my garage I can't bring myself to engrave the SO tools. Maybe a mistake, got lucky once - that's probably it for me.

 

[OneTon]

Engraved tools (with someone elses name) is like a new girlfriend. They both look nice, but you always wonder who was there before you.

 

[Boiler]

I picked up some wrenches that were pretty grimy so I cleaned them. I wanted to dirty them up again as the cleaning showed that they had Warren Beatty (almost, similar name) engraved in cursive on them. It was like half of each wrench, either on the open end or on the handle. Just really aweful looking and completely unnecessary. I would think a simple WB with stamps would have sufficed.

 

[993James993]

My father engraved many of his tools, mainly the ones he used at work. Hard for someone to argue if your name is on the tool.

I buy a lot of very old machinists tools and have several that carry exquisite engravings. My two favorites are a hundred years old and the engraving is beautiful.

 

[mrholeshot]

I use to engrave my tools but what I do if find a flaw in every new wrench and photograph the flaw(they all have a flaw or distinquishing mark and take a close up with a 35mm. I have them all listed, photoed and filed for insurance reasons. Every tool has it's own fingerprint.

 

[caper]

Personally,as a collector of ratchets,engraving doesn't really bother me as long as it's not over the top.I look at it as some mechanic cared enough about the ratchet to put his name on it,to make sure his stuff stayed his.It just adds to the history of the tool for me.It's a connection to the mechanic and all the cool old stuff he worked on.

 

[rayzor32]

all my tools are engraved for work, extra insurance and hard to argue whos tool it is if its got ur name on it. Your tools are going to get marked up with use anyway.