Well I just sold my first knife tonight. I donated one that I just finished to a fundraising auction for the local hunting, fishing, and wildlife association, to be auctioned off at their fundraiser. I was happy with how the knife turned out but since not many people know I even make knives, I didn't expect a lot of interest. It was a 8.5 inch drop point styled skinner. Turns out that it sold to a guy for $160, and the group wants to buy more to have engraved with the club logo for other awards and fundraisers. The guy who bought it also said he may contact me for more knives. My question, now that I have finally got to the point is how do I get started with etching a makers mark? I am interested in getting my blades marked or possibly on the spine, so that it can be seen as one of mine but I don't know how to go about it. Do you guys make your own stencils or is there a place I could have stencils made? Also I have seen etching systems that vary wildly in price and wondered how important it is to spend the extra money on the machine? If someone could please fill this noob in on how I go about getting stencils and a machine it would be very much appreciated. Thanks guys.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Question about etching
- Thread starter Grayzer86
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2008
- Messages
- 5,547
First of all, congrats on your first sale! $160 bucks is a good price for your first. Nice too, that you generated some more interest.
Several knife supply companies sell etching machines, such as the Personalizer Plus. Try Jantz Supply, and as I recall hightemptools.com sold or linked to sales for an etcher, too.
Many here, including me, have built our own etchers. Search for "Cris Crawford etcher." There are threads about it here, and full plans and a parts list at his site. It's an easy build, costs about $65 in Radio Shack parts.
As for stencils, they can be made at home, if you go to the trouble of building your own light box to develop them. Tracy Mickley has a tutorial for this, and for etching marks in general, at USA Knifemaker's.
I recommend, and many others will, buying stencils from Ernie Grospitch. Google "Blue Lightning Stencils" or "Ernie Grospitch." His price is reasonable, and his customer service and product are excellent.
Several knife supply companies sell etching machines, such as the Personalizer Plus. Try Jantz Supply, and as I recall hightemptools.com sold or linked to sales for an etcher, too.
Many here, including me, have built our own etchers. Search for "Cris Crawford etcher." There are threads about it here, and full plans and a parts list at his site. It's an easy build, costs about $65 in Radio Shack parts.
As for stencils, they can be made at home, if you go to the trouble of building your own light box to develop them. Tracy Mickley has a tutorial for this, and for etching marks in general, at USA Knifemaker's.
I recommend, and many others will, buying stencils from Ernie Grospitch. Google "Blue Lightning Stencils" or "Ernie Grospitch." His price is reasonable, and his customer service and product are excellent.
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 1,043
Salem that is an incredibly helpful post. Bookmarked. Thanks.
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2010
- Messages
- 3,668
Here's my thread for building an etcher, around $25 in parts. It's an updated version of the Chris Crawford design, which was an updated version of the Bob Warner design. If you want super simple, just attach alligator clips to a wall transformer, it will etch as well as the DC output from any etcher. However, it won't darken unless you do the same with an AC/AC transformer.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Electro-Etcher-design?highlight=latest+etcher
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Electro-Etcher-design?highlight=latest+etcher