Thought I'd Share

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

Here's the latest "Weapon Tattoo" that we did. The customer came in and wanted scroll work. He understood the whole cermark thing and that we can't do scroll work like he's accustomed to. He gave me no boundaries except he wanted scroll work. I tinkered with the design and in the end over embellished knowing we could down scale. He came in to look at the design and loved it just like that. I was even able to sneek my initials in to sort of sign the piece. He just happens to have my same initals.
Thanks for taking a look...

[Rick Gifford]

I like it. Very nice.

[Dee Gallo]

Fancy! Reminds me of the old civil war pin fire display pistols. I love that you could sneak your initials in there, too.

Thanks for sharing, dee

[Dave Lock]

Looks great. Nice work.

I have some Thermark but hesitant to use it yet until my experience builds. I worry that without a test piece I would mess it up.

Good job.

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

I have some Thermark but hesitant to use it yet until my experience builds. I worry that without a test piece I would mess it up.

Dave, can you not get a small piece of stainless steel to test on? I have a business card size piece that I use to test on with very small items. (To be sure they will come out) For that matter, don't you have a pocket knife that you always wanted your name on? TEST! TEST! TEST! How else are you goning to know?

[Jack Harper]

Looks great. Nice work.

I have some Thermark but hesitant to use it yet until my experience builds. I worry that without a test piece I would mess it up.

Good job.

Dave - As a waterjet shop we end up with thousands of stainless scrap pieces. Just find a local laser or waterjet shop, drop in and ask for some small pieces. Be sure to get several thicknesses as Cermark will apply differently depending on the materials heat sink capabilities i.e. thickness. Also, while you there, offer to bring back some samples with their logo Cermarked. After all, job shops that cut parts, often need them marked as well.

[Dave Lock]

I have some Thermark but hesitant to use it yet until my experience builds. I worry that without a test piece I would mess it up.

Dave, can you not get a small piece of stainless steel to test on? I have a business card size piece that I use to test on with very small items. (To be sure they will come out) For that matter, don't you have a pocket knife that you always wanted your name on? TEST! TEST! TEST! How else are you goning to know?

Dave - As a waterjet shop we end up with thousands of stainless scrap pieces. Just find a local laser or waterjet shop, drop in and ask for some small pieces. Be sure to get several thicknesses as Cermark will apply differently depending on the materials heat sink capabilities i.e. thickness. Also, while you there, offer to bring back some samples with their logo Cermarked. After all, job shops that cut parts, often need them marked as well.

Thanks for the ideas guys.
I have tried it on a couple of pocket knives, first one was rubbish, second one was great after messing with power/speed. I think I'd still be nervous about trying something like the gun though. Practise, practise, practice I guess.

Dave.

[Joe Baker]

If customer was happy and you made money thats the final grade. looks good


What do you do may i ask? Gunsmith?

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

If customer was happy and you made money thats the final grade. looks good


What do you do may i ask? Gunsmith?

I run a retail store. I am far from a gunsmith! These are customers who know what we can do, and like to spend their money on it. This happens to be this person's third weapon we etched.

[Todd Suire]

How do you get the image to fit so precisely? Do you scan the weapon and import into your graphics program?

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

Scanning the weapon, knife, whatever odd shaped thing is always helpful. That is what I did. Scan then make a photo copy. (All in one printers are usefull sometimes) With the picture of the weapon, I started placing the scrolls on top of the image. Then I did center-center because of the un-eveness of the weapon. I picked one or two pieces at a time. I do a lot of knive this way especially. These are not easy, but rewarding in the end. Especially when the customers are happy with the end result and show off your work to friends and family!

[David Harvey]

Nice work! I really don't think I would have attempted that one. Good job!

I've had a little 'gun' work thrown my way too. I do engraving for a customer that sells gun grips...I put the Colt logo on them for him. Recently he's been interested in advancing his product line, so I came up with some hand grips I machined out of walnut. I did the 3D modeling in Aspire v2 and routed them on the shopbot.

He was quite pleased with the samples I made and has submitted more grips for me to quote on.

Don't know if it will come to fruit..but it was fun doing it. The pic attached is of the plastic grips (1 type of many) that I do for him and the inset shows the walnut sampels I made.

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

Nice work! I really don't think I would have attempted that one. Good job!

I've had a little 'gun' work thrown my way too. I do engraving for a customer that sells gun grips...I put the Colt logo on them for him. Recently he's been interested in advancing his product line, so I came up with some hand grips I machined out of walnut. I did the 3D modeling in Aspire v2 and routed them on the shopbot.

Very Nice work on the grips! Good luck on your bid.

I wish I had the machinery to make my own grips for people. I have only etched one set of grips for a person. They too were walnut.

This is my third weapon for this person, so I had to do it. He was very understanding as I told him how apprehensive I was. It took a lot of sleepless nights until I got the courage to just etch the thing. I think I lost about 5 years of my life due to the worry and stress I put myself through.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.