Branding Iron ?

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KF, I would use a four or maybe a little bigger. The biggest issue will be that your brand should not have any closed area like a "box" or a "6" or"9" especially if the brand feature that is completly closed is pretty small. The hide will slip off on the inside of the closed area and you'll have a mess on your hands.

I have that problem and am in the process of making a new, larger brand so that I won't slip the skin off. My brand is N BOX T where the box is around the T but it is only about 3" across. I have several cows where the brand looks like N and then a big blank spot where the skin slipped. Make sense?
 
I think that 4 inches is the standard size. Some people use a 3 inch on calves as they will grow into it. I have always been able to fit a 4 inch brand on the hip of a two month old calf. To avoid blotching that Lava was talking about have plenty of space between between charactors of the brand. My brand is a simple N bar and the bottom corner of the N will sometimes blotch down to the bar. That is caused by having too much heat in an area.
 
Any place where 2 lines meet, like an L or a T you will want a small gap to prevent the hot spots. But anyone with experience making irons will know to do that.
 
Mine is a V/G and is 7 in wide and 4 in tall on the slash. I found out immediately that is won't work on a month old calf's hip. I did one with it and switched to the right ribcage after that.

BTW it's a freeze brand. I am pretty sure I am going to switch to an electric hot iron this year. It worked real nice on the calves but success on older cows was not as good
 
Mine is only 3" and it's a slender brand but on the little slick haired thousand pound cows that work here and it being on the rib it works just fine for any sized cattle.
 
Thank you all for your replys. I appreciate it! My brand is a Diamond J. I would draw a pic for you but........
The J is centered and does not touch the Diamond. It is crossed at the top like a capital J. I believe that will work and I think that
bigger will be better. I plan on buying an Iron from L&H and figure an electric will work for me. I want to buy a fire brand but figure the electric will let me brand dogs and boards if this cow chit don't work out right! ;) :)
 

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