Question: Finding an engraver

[cmkaco]

Hi all, new to this forum. I am not an engraver, but an instrument maker (as a hobby). Mostly, I make Greek musical instruments, like bouzoukis, but I got the bug to make a couple of archtop guitars. I would like to have the name of the guitar model engraved on the pearl inlay on the headstock and the initials of the owners on the pearl inlay of the tailpiece. How do I go about finding an engraver that can do this in my area (Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC)? Would I just ask at local jewelry stores if their engraver could do this work, or is that a different type of engraving. I don't know much about engraving, except the little I have learned from reading a few books on the subject when I was heavily into knife collecting. In the alternative, I could ship the pieces out to be engraved, before the guitars were assembled, but I would rather find somebody in the area where I could drop off and pick up the pieces in person. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Looks like a real nice forum you have here. The pictures of your work are amazing.
Thanks,
Christ Kacoyannakis

 

[mdengraver]

Kevin Enoch (mother of pearl inlay engraver)

http://www.enochbanjos.com/gallery.html

Checkout Kevin Enochs website above.
Kevin Enoch makes instruments and does beatiful mother of pearl inlay work.
He is located in the Washington D.C. area. I took a mother of pearl inlay
one-week class with him at The Augusta Heritage Festival Davis and Elkins College, Elkins, West Virginia.

 

[Weldon47]

Christ,

Also check with Tom Ellis at Precision Pearl Inlay in Austin, Texas. Though I don't do pearl engraving I have engraved a number of tailpieces for Collings (on their mandos & a couple of archtop guitars) and also several for Tom Ellis on his new mandolins.

Weldon

 

[Banjocarver]

I would have to second the choice of contacting Kevin Enoch. Kevin would a great choice for this, he specializes in pearl engraving on instruments and does some custom work for a few guitar companies. He is considered one of the top pearl engravers around by us banjo builders (and we tend to be the ones fixated on pearl engraving). He's also located really close to you geographically. Good luck. Glenn C.

 

[cmkaco]

Thanks

Thanks for all the great leads. I contacted Mr. Enoch and stated that he could probably do it. Great advice. Thanks.