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.
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.
Finished Knife - Amazing how close they came to my pics. I could not have been more pleased.
After 10 months of EDC, you can see the lettering looks great.
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 doesnt matter) and we can not anodize it. Your knife would only be available in silver contrast (not reversed or colored). Heres 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 doesnt 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 dont think it would be a problem to angle the letters but send me whatever you are thinking of and Ill 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 !