I was looking around the shop and found some old PMW headbadges which Mike Cherney had made for Mark. Headbadges always catch my eye. Can I see yours?
PMW Headbadges
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I have trouble being creative so my head badge is a mix between the Space Force delta shape and the New Mexico Zia symbol. Because I’m in the Space Force and live in New Mexico. Everyone loves it so far though! Super easy to get laser cut and bent to shape.
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It actually took a few iterations to get it right. It is laser cut from .06" 304SS for ~$2.50/ea. We form the badge in two stages:
Squishy Urethane Die
The urethane pad holds the badge against a 3D printed die to prevent multi-breakage
Press Roller
A roller press smooths over the ears and the thin segments:
Not sure if this is the exact press:
The results are still not perfect, but it’s worth the trouble! People love them. Our earlier bikes did not have the metal badge, so we offer to send and install badges for free
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@Neuhaus_Metalworks That’s the way to get curve just right! 
I use a cruder method to make the curve since I use a wide variety of head tubes. Once the badge is riveted on, I use a small hammer to knock down any points.
Customers can choose from aluminum, copper, brass, or get them painted to match the color scheme.
Lately I’ve been stamping on the build number.
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Pretty complicated process. I have mine laser cut from an inox tube, you just have to match ID of it with OD of headtube.
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This was my first one! Laser cut from 6Al-4V and hand-anodized. I just used VHB to attach it to the head tube. Not sure this will be my long-term vision, but it was a fun project.
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The head badges actually take quite a bit of time, I can adjust the roller to fine tune to different headtube diameters, but it always takes a few passes. The process currently is lightly brush with green scotchbrite, bend, roll, re brush with green scotchbrite.
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Always loved your head badges Carl. Probably my favourite out of them all.
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I always was fascinated by modern headbages, from the simple letters cut-off to more complex cast one.
Here are mine, one is dedicated to bmx frames, the other one to their big wheeled brothers.
Designed by friends because my freehand drawing and creativity is on par with my 5yo nephew
Self made acid etched brass or copper , they are all different one from another and they all aged differently. See that one on the right, it was almost shiny when I put it on a bike two years ago.
They took a massive amount of time to be made, and the process is still random at some point ( pre etching print and curving…) but I woudnt let a handbuilt bike in the wild without a headbadge
Keep them coming!
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I just squish them in tube blocks. To clean up any silver around them I use a nylon ‘wire wheel’. On parts that I’m going to black oxide I really like to get in there and clean the silver up since the BO won’t stick to it.
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Here’s a recent Sailor Moon inspired custom headbadge. It’s a couple layers of stainless with a crystal inlay.
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Mine is stamped in brass and bent to match a 44 mm paragon headtube. All I do is silver braze it in place and polish the surface afterwards. My powder coater masks the area and I give it a final polish after I do the edge cleanup. The heat from brazing naturally darkens the relieved areas, giving a nice contrast when polished. The badge gets a lovely patina over time, too, since it is raw brass.
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On a Hobby level I have been working on printing them. I was going to have them cut from metal and bend to fit but designing and printing letters is just difficult enough to capture my imagination.
FYI creating stencil letters on a curved surface in solid works is not easy…
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