Rather a lot goes into making the winged badge on the hood of each new Aston Martin. Whereas most automakers have moved to frequent plastic, every Aston badge continues to be handmade from steel. This video from YouTube channel MrJWW reveals the way it’s completed, for a special-edition DBX, on this case.

A 200-year-old British firm known as Vaughtons has been making Aston badges for the reason that Sixties. The corporate has additionally made medals for the Olympics and Premier League soccer, in addition to badges for the first-class suites on the Titanic.

Every badge begins as a steel clean. These blanks are stamped a number of occasions in a machine press, however as a result of the fabric will solely transfer a lot whereas chilly, it is also heated to 1,472 levels Fahrenheit in between stampings (known as “blows” within the enterprise) to make it softer. This course of, known as annealing, brings out all the element.

Every badge can undergo the press as much as 14 occasions earlier than it is able to go on a automotive, with six rounds of annealing in between. After that, extra materials is trimmed off and the badge is distributed for ending.

With the essential form achieved, the badge is cleaned utilizing each ultrasound, and an electrolytic course of that makes use of a mix of cleaning soap and cyanide. Badges are then plated and completed, earlier than being despatched to the manufacturing unit to be mounted on automobiles.

Aston Martin is not the one automaker that treats its badges like fantastic jewellery. Each Bugatti “macaron” badge is comprised of 150 grams of sterling silver, and takes 10 hours to make.