Branding Hammers.

Metal branding hammers were the most common way to control the sale and movement of hardwood timber produce like logs, railway sleepers, fence posts, and poles from Victorian State forests. Royalty was also paid on this basis.

The hammer had a crown stamp on one end with a unique number in the middle which identified its owner, and a crows foot or broad arrow on the other.

The broad arrow was a symbol traditionally used in Britain and its colonies to mark government property.

Forest regulations state that an authorised officer may use the crown mark to identify produce which has been sold and may be removed from the forest, whereas the broad arrow can be used to brand and mark trees which are not to be felled, or to indicate forest produce which has been seized.

Hammers were traditionally only ever issued to forest officers and were an important, and closely guarded tool-of-trade. They were not transferred between staff and lending hammers was not permitted.

But it was an onerous task for staff to hammer and tally hundreds of logs, or thousands of fence posts each week, so in about 1990 a system was introduced whereby hammers were allocated to logging contractors to grade logs and tally them instead. But there was still spot checking by authorised officers.

A register was kept, and contractors paid a substantial deposit to make sure they didn’t lose them, but they occasionally turn up by fossickers with metal detectors.

While branding hammers are still used in some smaller locations, plastic tags and barcodes are now more common.

Image: Dave Hocking’s branding hammer – #606