Branded

I got an hour to work in the shop this weekend. Jen and Anika went out shopping, Jonathan was sleeping while Andrew and Sarah were playing in the finished side of the basement.
I bought a $50 branding iron from Rockler a while back, it says: Hand Crafted by Ryan Schultz. I was too cheap to pay the extra $30 to make it electrically heated. I thought I could heat it up with one of my little torches... didn't work. So I drilled a 1/4" hole in each side and stuck two 100 Watt plug heaters in. That did the trick, heated up in about 2 minutes.
Once I practiced a few times on scrap, I branded the neck block.
Turns out I got it a bit too hot. It would have been better for me to do this before it was glued onto the sides, and before I put a coat of sealer on it. Next time.
Here you can see (although not in focus) the branding through the hole in the top as the top sits on the sides. The top is notched into the sides at the upper face brace, and everything else except the lower X braces are tapered down to nothing at the rim. All that remains before I glue on the top is to finish the lower X braces and sand everything down.