Anybody who spends the long hours, weeks, and years learning fine woodworking — not to mention investing in nice wood to ensure a project will last for decades — is right to feel some pride in the finished result. The builder may have opportunities to brag discreetly when visitors ask, “Where’d you get that beautiful table?,” but what about a generation from now, when this year’s hobby has become an heirloom? Take a tip from craftsmen of yore, and put your mark on it. Rockler offers customized branding tools that will forever mark projects from your workbench; $30 gets your initials, and an additional $20 buys a classy looking three-line message along the lines of “Handcrafted by John DeFore, Austin, Texas.” (Hey, just because I don’t know how to make a dovetail joint today doesn’t mean I can’t learn.) Additional decorations can be added to the text, and you can also pay a bit more for brands that electrically heat themselves, rather than requiring the use of a torch. Finally, a reasonable-sounding $170 lets the customer not only choose the text but use his/her own logo — any black-and-white image, up to three square inches. Who knows — 50 years from now, that maker’s mark might mean something to an expert on Antiques Roadshow.