The Branding Table 

The wise owner ensures all his livestock is branded whether it has four legs or two.

Branding an animal or a slave is important for two reasons. Firstly, it states publicly that the animal or slave is your property and that you are its legal owner - most important if the animal or slave ever strays.

Secondly, for a slave, the brand has a phycological effect in that the slave now knows its true status is that of an owned object. 

In the case of the slave, branding should be carried out with great care otherwise a poorly applied brand can spoil its appearance and lessen its value on the auction-block. Most slave-owners take pride in seeing their mark of ownership cleanly outlined on the slave's body.

Therefore, it is wise to employ a professional brander to mark your slaves. Branding with a hot iron is a precision skill and only comes after much practice. The brander must know precisely how hot to heat the iron and for how long to apply it to the slave's flesh to achieve a desirable, crisp outline. 

For that to happen, a branding table is essential. As can be seen from the attached photo, the slave to be branded must be stretched taut and completely immobilised so that it doesn't move as the brand sears itself into its hide. Any movement, no matter how slight, has the potential to blur the brand. 

Two final comments: The site for the brand must be carefully chosen. Ideally, the brand should be applied to the fleshy parts of a slave's body i.e. its ass, pectorals, biceps and similar locations. It's best not to apply it to the less fleshy areas of its belly or groin where the abdominal walls are thin as there is a risk of causing internal damage.

And secondly, you have to detach yourself from the slave's suffering.You need to steel yourself against its pleas to be spared and its screams as the branding-iron is applied. You need to trust the brander; after all, he knows what he is doing and slaves rarely die on the branding table 

Most certainly, the slave will feel pain and discomfort as the new  brand heals itself. Although, the pain will cease eventually, the slave will always remember the agony of the branding-iron and never forget that is now just property and a "marked object".

Picture sourced from the internet: the text is mine.