A few questions about custom engraving and inscribing.

Joined
Feb 22, 2009
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So, I've been dancing around the idea of getting a Sebenza. I know that if I do get one, I would want it to be customized so that it was my Sebenza, and not just a Sebenza. So I thought I'd ask a few questions here before I bothered Mr. Reeve and his hard working associates.



1. Does CRK do custom work that is not their design, or do they only produce their own designs? The design I was thinking of was very simple, and probably very easy to produce. Would that lower the cost of the work, or do they charge a flat rate for any design that isn't in their current catalog?

2. Can you get an engraved and anodized design, and still have a bead blasted finish? While looking through some of the pictures, all the engraved knives I saw had polished slabs. Is this the only option?

3. I'd like to get something inscribed on the back of the knife. Are there different font options? Is there a set number of characters you can have?



Thank you for any info you can give me.
 
I just placed an order for an engraved Sebenza yesterday as a gift for my son.
Here's what I learned:

1) Standard engrave is back side above the lock bar 20 char max recommend for either large or small Sebenza they'll adjust font size depending on large or small $32.50

2) Egrave front side prices start at $60 still recommend no more than 20 char.

3) Fonts they don't offer a listing, but suggest if you're looking for a specific font send them a sample and they'll see if they can match it.

4) Normally you don't pay for an order until it ships, engraved orders payment due when work order is placed.

5) Expect to add 4 to 6 weeks for engraving.

I hope that helps with some of your questions.
 
I would say pm neyfmaker. Here is his BF page. Hope he does not mind: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/member.php?u=233253

He engraved NCIS and Gibbs rule nr 9 on the front and then always carry a knife on the back completely bead blasted finished. I do think they do different fonts.

The problem with the anodized sebenzas are that they have to be COMPLETELY flat if I remember correctly and therefore smooth. Normal bead blasted sebz though they look perfectly flat are not perfect and bead blasted. Or something like that I read years ago!

As far as I know there was a recent thread about CRK doing custom work and the end answer was no? I might be wrong.
 
I didn't realize how many characters my inscription was going to be. I guess 20 makes sense. mine was 42 with spaces.

Nemo vir est qui mundum non reddat meliorem (No man is a man who does not render the world better)

Oh well, I guess I'll have to think up something else.
 
I would say pm neyfmaker. Here is his BF page. Hope he does not mind: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/member.php?u=233253

He engraved NCIS and Gibbs rule nr 9 on the front and then always carry a knife on the back completely bead blasted finished. I do think they do different fonts.

The problem with the anodized sebenzas are that they have to be COMPLETELY flat if I remember correctly and therefore smooth. Normal bead blasted sebz though they look perfectly flat are not perfect and bead blasted. Or something like that I read years ago!

As far as I know there was a recent thread about CRK doing custom work and the end answer was no? I might be wrong.

Not at all, I am always glad to help.

I didn't realize how many characters my inscription was going to be. I guess 20 makes sense. mine was 42 with spaces.

Nemo vir est qui mundum non reddat meliorem (No man is a man who does not render the world better)

Oh well, I guess I'll have to think up something else.

I still have the emails from CRK when I was asking what could be done and what could not. I will post some of them for you later on his evening. I emailed Heather MANY times and she was absolutely awsome with assisting me with my engaving.
 
That would be great!

Hopefully I can help you out with this. I will also post some pics of my engraved sebbie for you to see as well....................I found a great pic of 2 sebenzas side by side on another forum. I saved that pic into my "paint" program on my computer. With that, I was able to add words and such to it to see how I would like it. I could change colors and everything. I think I still have the unedited pic I can send you if you wanna try it the way I did. The Pics I emailed CRK looks almost exactly like the knife I received, so I can certainly say they do wonderful work. I will post some email excerts as well.
123NCISSebenzaFront.jpg

NCISBackside.jpg
I did change my wording on the back because I had too many letters. They could have done it, but it would have been small. So I opted to change it to " Always Carry A Knife " which fit much better and was also quoted on the show.
NCISsebenza6thebestonesofar1.jpg


Finished Knife - Amazing how close they came to my pics. I could not have been more pleased.
gibbsrule-1.jpg

gibbsrule-8.jpg

gibbsrule-5.jpg

gibbsrule-6.jpg

After 10 months of EDC, you can see the lettering looks great.
IMG_2980.jpg


If you want anodized graphics or lettering, it has to have the shinny slab like the unique graphics have. You can only get anodized graphics on the front, not the back.

"The pricing for a machine graphic can be a bit confusing. To set up our CAD for the words you want machined on the face it is $60 per line and engraving on the back is $32.50 per line. If you want the words in color the cost would then be that of a unique graphic $485. Please note we are limited in the colors we can anodize. We can not achieve black -- sorry. Our available colors are blues, purples, golds, pinks and variations of each or the silver of the titanium and dark grey of the sandblast. If you want the knife in silver contrast or reverse silver contrast the cost is $440 plus the set up fees. Please find an example of it attached. I think the reverse silver contrast would look the best but let me know what you think."

The price was $60 Per Line on the front; $32.50 per font on the back.

On the front, you can do different designs, lettering and such, on the back your limited to certain fonts

"Yes, that looks like something we could do. Please keep in mind we generally tell people we can engrave 20 characters on the backside. You have a few more so the font may be smaller and I would recommend not having the quote marks to save on space. I have attached a picture of the Think Twice. You are correct that the engraving is blasted over and we would be able to do that with your existing knife as well. Let me know what you come up with."

You can leave the lettering shinny or have it blasted over. I opted to have mine blasted over.

" As for your knife, we can engrave your existing knife but there are limitations. It must be a plain (profile doesn’t matter) and we can not anodize it. Your knife would only be available in silver contrast (not reversed or colored). Here’s a bit more back-story about our procedure for graphics on knives. When we choose a handle face to anodize we need one that is perfectly flat and has very little “cloudiness”. Titanium has a natural color variation that we call cloudy. Faces that are to be anodized need to be clear so the face doesn’t look dirty and flat so we can polish it. The graphic is machined on this face and then anodized. The “color” spreads into the machined groove but also on the flat surface. We then polish the excess color off so it only remains in the groove. The handles that are cloudy and may or may not be perfectly flat are sandblasted and made into plain knives. With an existing knife we can only machine a design in silver contrast – make sense? Based on our same procedures we do not offer a sandblasted anodized handle (we need to polish off that excess). I don’t think it would be a problem to angle the letters but send me whatever you are thinking of and I’ll ask the Cardinal fan machinist. We also can not anodize the back because it is not a flat surface with the curvature of the lock. The back engraving is just engraved and blasted over or left shinny. We can do all caps, smalls or a combination of both."


For my NCIS knife, I tried to duplicate the font used on the show. The pait program had almost the exact font and CRK was able to do that exact font as well. When "Heather" called me upon its completition, I asked her how it looks and she stated " just like your picture ''. CRK does awsome work.

"I spoke with the machinist and they can engrave the face and back as you requested. The only exception is that if you want the face "pocketed out" as in the letters solid and pocketed to one depth as opposed to an outline it will cost around $120 for the face. The $60 charge is if the letters are in outline format. The reason being is that set up fees are based on machine time. A broad pocket takes a lot longer than a outline. The tool has to keep going back and forth removing all the material with the broad pocket whereas it only makes one pass with the outline -- I hope that makes sense. Let me know what you want to do. Normally I would expect this type of work to take around 2-3 weeks from the time we receive the knife to when it is ready to send back. Payment will not be required until we have your knife finished and ready to ship. I can phone you (or you us) at that time for payment. "

If you buy a sebbie 21 straight from CRK, there are more options. I like the regular profile better, so I had less options, but I am very happy with the results.

I hope this helps you out and answers some of your questions. If you have any other questions, PM me. If I dont have the answer, "Heather" will be more than glad to help. Enjoy !
 
I emailed Heather MANY times and she was absolutely awsome with assisting me with my engaving.

+1

I have a custom design on order, Heather was great to work with. Probably sent 15+ emails back and forth to make sure they had exactly what I wanted.
 
+1

I have a custom design on order, Heather was great to work with. Probably sent 15+ emails back and forth to make sure they had exactly what I wanted.

Please remember to post pictures when it arrives:).
 
Thank you so much Nyefmaker!!

I'm a little bummed about not having the bead blast finish with anodized engravings, but I think I can figure out something that works.

You said that they could do your first idea for the back, but that it would look scrunched? That might be ok for me.
 
Thank you so much Nyefmaker!!

I'm a little bummed about not having the bead blast finish with anodized engravings, but I think I can figure out something that works.

You said that they could do your first idea for the back, but that it would look scrunched? That might be ok for me.

Not a problem, always glad to help. I think my first idea including spaces was like 35 characters. I thought it might be way too small, so I opted for the other quote that was much smaller and I knew they could do it bigger. I used to do computerized engraving for several years when I worked for my uncle, so I was familiar with the process and what could and could not be done..............The pockeded out letters cost a little more. I think if you get the letters like the "think twice" sebbie, its cheaper because it does not take as long. I could have left the letters shinny. Believe me, I would have loved to have blue letters, but since it could not be done, I had to change it.........

I would highly recommend messing with the paint program because you can see that it looks very similar. It definately helped me out. Let me know what you come up with.
 
Right now, I was thinking of something like this, but I'm still milling around other designs in my head.


MySeb.jpg

Thats a cool design. Nice and simple, but adds alot to the sebbie. I was told about the colors on the bead blasted. When they use the electrolisis to color, it goes over into other areas. They mask areas with tape to make sure it doesnt. That is why they can do the different colors on the shinny slabs. When it does go over, they just sand them and any color that goes over is gone only leaving the color uniformly in the machined graphic areas. Thats why they will not do unique designs on existing knives. The slabs have to be perfectly flat or cloudy, the ones not perfectly flat or cloudy are used for regular blasted over sebbies, while the perfectly flat & non-cloudy ones are used for uniques. Thats why if you want a custom unique, it has to come from CRK directly because they have perfect slabs ready to go........... Yet, they do blasted over color dogpaws for plaza cutlery ??? They go through the whole process on the CRK DVD. I highly recommend it as it explains alot. I certainly wish they would do colors because I would have gotten blue letters on front. They Can Not Do Colors on the back, even with a unique.
 
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