What questions should you ask when looking for an engraver?

[Travis Fry]

I'm a knife maker. Because I also engrave (sorta, I'm maybe an advanced beginner), my knifemaker buddies assume I know everything about engraving and ask me a lot of questions. Sometimes I know the answer, but I'm no expert, and even when I do know the answers I'm always interested in what other's have to say. There are a few engravers that are commonly used in our neck of the woods (Texas), and you see their work around and we all know them pretty well from knife shows and such. Some are better than others, some more or less expensive, some laser and some hand, etc., but let's assume you're starting from scratch and don't know these folks, or maybe you just bought a knife and want to have it engraved.

-How should you go about finding an engraver?
-What questions should you be sure to ask?
-How can you tell (as a non-engraver) whether an engraver's work is any good or not? What are the key things that a relatively uninformed non-engraver should look for?
-Anything else?

Let me know what y'all think. I have my own ideas, but I'd love to hear from everyone else.

 

[tdelewis]

Ask to see a portfolio of their work. Do a google image search of engraved knives and you will and you will see a range of skill level. FEGA has a list of master engravers as well as others who do excellent work Firearm Engravers Guild Home Page (fega.com)