Branding Iron

A branding iron is a tool used to press a heated metal shape against livestock, most often cattle and horses, to leave a permanent mark showing ownership. The traditional iron was a metal rod bearing a simple symbol or mark, heated in a fire until red hot and then pressed against the animal's hide, a practice that let animals belonging to different owners graze the same open range and be sorted safely at roundup. The practice dates to ancient Egypt and was later carried on by the Romans; the Spanish Empire spread cattle branding through South and Central America during colonial expansion, and Spanish vaquero method shaped ranching in the American Southwest even as separate English branding traditions took hold farther east. Fire branding is still used today alongside newer electric, propane and freeze branding methods.