Let's Make Personalized Dog Tags

Being a Veteran, I am proud of my personal Dog Tags, but anyone can make their own with some tools, an idea, and a few hours of your weekend. I will show my process for creating personalized dog tags out of easy to find copper piping.

1/2-inch copper pipe found at any hardware/plumbing supply store

Chain, I used beaded chain in 'vintage bronze'

Marking tools

Piping cutter

Metal Shears

Torch

Pliers

Hammers

Stamp set

hard surface to pound on, I used a HF anvil

Drill and bits

sanding tools and/or files

Safety gear (gloves, eye and hearing protection)

Optional: dog tag silencers

Here is a video of the entire process where I also discuss some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Dog Tags. In particular, where does the name come from, what are they made out of, do they rust, etc.

My dog tags are 2 inches long by 1 1/8 inches wide, with an oval edge. Using that, I cut an appropriate length of copper pipe. Next, I split it down the middle using a pair of metal shears. I opened it up using a long nail and pliers. I just had to open it a little in order to get a second pair of pliers inside in order to fully open it. Finally, I flattened the piece with a hammer and a hard surface.

OPTIONAL: If this is your first time making these, and you don't have access to real military dog tags, my suggestion is to make a Blank aka a template. This helps for reproducibility later down the line if you choose to make a lot.

After tracing/drawing your template, I once again use the metal shears to cut the outline. If you find it difficult to cut the copper, especially after flattening it out, you can use a torch to anneal the copper. This will make it easier to cut!

Next, you have to drill a hole for the chain. This is centered 5/16-inch down the length. Depending on what chain you will be using will determine how big of a hole you will need to drill.

Finally, smooth everything out with some sanding by whatever means you have at your disposal. Myself, I used my disc sander for the edges and I used a larger drill bit to smooth out the hole the chain will fall into since it will likely protrude out of one side.

The next step is to stamp whatever Name, message, title, etc. that you want to display on your dog tags. I just got the cheapest stamp set I could find at Harbor Freight and used that to put the proof to practice, however there are some cool font sets at craft stores and online.

In my video in the previous step, I talk about why I chose the message I chose.

Using my set, I stamped away but noticed that as I was stamping the message, the dog tag would cup. The lettering would raise on the backside as well. I flattened it back out using a wooden hammer to minimize any additional marring. We will polish it up anyways so if you don't have a wooden/plastic mallet, don't worry.

Then I just continue on until I am finished. I did not have an apostrophe stamp so I had to get creative and just used a center punch. If you don’t need an apostrophe, this is a moot point. :-)

Using straight copper pipe, you will likely have some letters and a dull finish on the surface. Especially if you’re using a used copper pipe, you may have some patina on the inner wall.

Before I polished the surface, I used some ink placed inside of the punched letters in order to let them “pop” a little more. After brightening them up, it’s especially difficult to see the letters so that will help. Polish the front being particular about your inked letters. This is followed by polishing the back and then doing some light filing on the edges to make sure that they are not sharp and or jagged.

OPTIONAL: Purchase some dog tag silencers. This will give you a couple of benefits:

1. Dog tags on your chain will jingle very loudly and quickly become annoying. Having a silencer will… Silence that.

2. The silencers are made out of rubber and will further protect you from any jagged edges. That is of course provided you do not round out the edge yourself.

I had some silver beaded chain lying around but after placing the copper on them, the contrasting color looked off to me. I looked online for some copper beaded chain but I could not find what I was looking for. I decided to go with a spool of ‘vintage bronzed’ chain and cut them to the appropriate length. You will usually see a large chain that will go around the neck for one tag and the other tag is attached to the large one on a smaller chain. The overall length of the large chain (not the loop but the full length) was 23 inches. The short chain was 6 inches. So hopefully that gives you some perspective but you may need to adjust for yourself or others.

And that’s it! You could do this for a friend, your pet, or a kiddo who wants to play army for Halloween… I don’t know, let your imagination go wild. I hope you enjoy this and please check out my other Instructables.