How to oxidize onto stainless steel

A. The thing is, oxidized stainless steel isn't necessarily black. If you look at shiny electropolished stainless steel, it is well oxidized. Passivated stainless steel is similarly well oxidized but not black.

There are proprietary anodizing processes for stainless steel that can tint it various colors, including black. But I don't know if there is any brush anodizing processes, and masking the rest of the item may be impractical.

I think a chemical blackening process, a black oxide for stainless steel, is what you are looking for, but I'm not sure of the best way to do that in a selective area, such as masking everything else. When you see a brass lamp or a gold school ring that is blackened in the recesses, that is done by blackening the whole thing and then relieving the exposed areas. That may or not be practical for your items. No answers, just food for thought, but hopefully someone who has actually done similar parts will weigh in on the practicalities and impracticalities of darkening your stamped names.

A. You can use a sharpie marker to fill in the indentations, then buff the rest off with a polishing cloth. Easy peasy.