Lettering

[dclevinger]

I don't want to hijack Sam's thread about leaf script so I'll start a new one.

Lettering can be a great way to get your name out there and it can be very profitable. For those of you who are starting out and want some fill in work or just want to make a little cash with your hobby, here's a way that worked for me. Get to know your local gunsmiths, there are over a dozen within 15 miles of my house, and let him know what you're up to and show him some samples of your best lettering. Most shops that build custom rifles or even just rebarrel factory guns would much rather have nice hand cut lettering than the old stamped stuff. It adds a little extra class. Do good work at a good price with a quick turnaround and you'll soon have a wonderful source of work and advertising. Many people come into gunshops asking about engraving and if their trusted gunsmith "has a guy" that he trusts, you can count on some referals to boot. Who knows, if the shop really likes your lettering you may even get some scrollwork and or inlays out of the deal. I'm sure others have an opinion on this and I would love to hear your thoughts. David

 

[Ron Smith]

Hi David,

Having made my living at this for forty years, this is good advise David. Versatility is the key, if you want to engrave for a living. Lettering is a good other way to apply our skills. I will add to yur comments however, and say that every large city benifits from having a "jewelry engraver". Learn monogramming and you will increase your work load considerably. Another good approach to the one you mentioned David, is to hit all of your local jewelry stores with your sample plate of lettering styles and a price sheet. This is the way I started my business. Another thing important is to keep your word. Stick to the prices you quote, and give a reasonably quick turn around time, as you said. There are many things machines can't do. This is where the freedom to design right on the object will benifit you. Before you know it, you will have people calling you from all over. Another suggestion would be to inhabit the local jewelry and gun shows. Have your cards ready on your table with sample plates visible. People will pick your cards up. Even though they might not come to you right away, they have your name. I scattered them over my table top for easy acquisition. I would put initials on things while the people browsed the show and had a minimum charge for this. I could often make in a weekend show several hundred dollars. Keep in mind that when I was doing this, a decent wage for a twenty something fellow was about $400.00 a month. One of the reasons I had a difficult time making it was because i was competing with mass production oriented rent of space. I had a shop on the street and it was costing me as much to keep it open as I was making for myself, so keep your overhead down. Think of other shows that you can attend locally. Give demonstrations etc. Make the people around you aware of you. Your local skeet club, Shooting ranges, etc.

Get out There!!!
Ron S

 

[Harpuahound]

Thanks for the advice, I will be putting it to use as soon as I have my own equipment (hopefully soon). I have a very professional set up in the store I work for and it drives me bonkers not to be able to use it for all the "extra curricular activities" hobo nickels, knives, extra cash.

This is all very usefull keep it coming.

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Great advice from Ron.

Johnny, there are a lot of engravers who can engrave beautiful scroll work or game scenes but just can't letter. This can let a job down and I'd go as far as to say, almost ruin it!

Most people you come across don't know a lot about scroll work so any small mistake can be hidden within the rest of the design. Not so with lettering. We are surrounded by it, it's everywhere you look. So if letters are badly cut, different sizes or ****ed it leaps out at you and shouts "Wrong!" or "This is HORRIBLE!" This is why gunmakers or gunsmiths are willing to pay a premium for good lettering. Stamped or machine engraving on fine handmade guns looks awful, but so can bad hand engraving.

My advice for gun work is to practice the 4 most common fonts until you can lay them out and cut as if you were writing on paper. The fonts are Roman, Roman Italic, block and Old English. Remember, all uprights must be verical and if you're italicizing, they must be parallel. This can get progressively more difficult the longer the inscription gets so don't forget to build this consideration into your price quote. If you really want to capture the gunsmith's attention, learn to gold inlay this lettering well. It's very special and looks great against the black of the barrel.

 

[pilkguns]

I will echo these comments. My wife used to work in Chattanooga and every Friday afternoon she made the rounds of jewelry stores, picking up jewelry and 90% of it was lettering. Next Friday she would take it back and pick up more. Good money, but after awhile the lettering for me got boring and I had enough gun/knife work that I did'nt want the interuption of the jewelry.

It was funny though, from Chattanooga stores they were sending stuff to Chicago, Atlanta, LA, Iowa and Texas to get it hand engraved, and they were estatic to have a local. I was also charging much higher prices than the "out-of-towners" because I was compensatig for their shipping and insurance fees both ways and working that into my price. Of course, we were taking the risk ourselves if Rhonda ever had an accident in the car driving back and forth. We did keep all the Jewelry in an army ammo can, just in case that happened, maybe the jewlery be intact and all in one place.