I am hoping someone can provide me with a contact to have some artwork engraved on a butt cap. Any referral would be appreciated. (Scott Grady)

I've got a great engraver who does custom work. His name is Jeff Knodle and his phone number is (734) 854-1034. His email address is jmknodle_engraver@direcway.com.

Here are a couple of links to photos of a reel seat he just did for me:





(Jeff Fultz)

Is there any merit in these 10 buck Chinese hi-speed rotary engravers? I use them for rough work like putting my name on aluminum fly boxes. (Bill Fink)

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but I get all of my engraving done at the local bowling alley/trophy shop. They have diamond tipped CAD engravers, and can make anything they can scan or download in addition to the fonts and graphics they have with their program. (Brian Creek)

Has anyone thought about laser engraving? I have a trophy shop in town that has the CAD setup and I’ve seen a few samples of what they can do for reasonable prices. (John Freedy)

I was thinking more in the line of "rose and scroll" engraving like Harry Boyd does on special order for his customers. Or Paolo Barbetti (sp?) does for Bellinger reels and Whitehead rods.

Can the trophy shop setups do that kind of stuff, or is it more like line art and text??? (Joe West)

Like Brian wrote, they can do graphics, fonts etc. One example was a fish, another I saw was scroll type engraving. Laser work as such is only limited to their inventory of graphics or what the customer brings in. Another thing that is done to enhance laser engraving is the use of different chemical agents (similar to bluing). Results can be anything from antiquing, to brass colorations etc. The only thing I have noticed with laser engraving is that it does not seem to be as dimensional as hand engraving. (John Freedy)

I have my logo laser-etched into reel seats.  Cost is $3 - $4 each, if you have a dozen or more done at a time. If you're interested, I'll put you in touch with Pat Kaveney who does the work for me. I would ask that you tell Pat that Harry sentcha. (Harry Boyd)

Hand engraving is not as hard as it sounds if you use magnification. I have no artistic talent when it comes to drawing and painting but I've done some really neat engraving on nickel silver reel seat hardware and ferrules. I use a 10X microscope and made my own engraving stylus. For nickel silver, you don't need anything really hard, a dentists pick works well if sharpened to a fine point. I found out the most important thing in a stylus is a large comfortable handle or your hand will cramp up something fierce.  (Jeff Fultz)

I did some engraving on brass parts on muzzle loaders about 25 years ago. It's not too difficult mechanically, my problem is a lack of artistic ability. Was able to make some gravers from drill rod, hardened, etc., that worked better (for me) than the ones from Dixie Gun Works. They were also much more comfortable cause I used large handles made from broom handles. (Carey Mitchell)

A friend of mine in South Carolina has set up shop at home to do jewelry design work. He designed jewelry for several years in a local shop here in Arkansas before moving to SC to do ministry work. He did some engraving for me on my last rod. Several folks at CRR asked for contact information. So with his permission, I'm posting his name and e-mail address if anyone needs some engraving work done. I've also attached a picture of the sliding band he did for me. This is my home made reel seat hardware. The quality of the engraving is much better than the hardware.

Here's his contact info:

Rick Castleman
rick_and_teresa@hotmail.com

(David Bolin)

 I'm looking for an engraver who has experience with reel seat engraving. This one I know (Jeff Knodle) but he is only working in winter times. He takes 350$ for the engraving on this reel seat he has on his gallery. Is this a good price? (Olaf Kundrus)

You know, I think Art is hard to price. It's priced at what people are willing to pay for it. That reel seat looks really nice, but $350 would be way too steep for me. I would guess I could be talked into paying $100 bucks or so if I really wanted to add an engraving to one of my rods. The deal is, if people are willing to pay him $350 for that amount of work, then it's worth it for him to price accordingly. 

I see your point though, if you got this and then saw an equally nice engraving done by say an up and coming local jewelry maker (maybe from a Jewelers class or something)for less then half the price. If you want a piece of art on your rod with that artists signature on it then go for it, but if you want an engraving, man, I'd check some local Jewelry shops for leads or something. (Martin Jensen)

The price he charges sounds extremely high to me but then it depends on just what the engraving is. I take the reel seat end caps and the rod case caps to a local trophy shop and get the engraving done for about $5-10. (Ray Gould)

The engraved hardware that Jeff Knodle did was on a set of hardware for me. This is no run of the mill engraving though, it features a couple of two dimensional trout, a finely detailed mayfly and some of the prettiest scroll work I have ever seen. $350 was a fair price for the labor and skill involved. Just think about how much I charged the customer for the completed rod, most would say it was a ridiculous price! I have also had some local engraving done. Some was artful, others have just been simple rod ID's and names. I guess you get what you pay for. (Jeff Fultz)

The engraving Knodle did for you looks great, and $350 is an altogether fair price. Even without getting into questions of what "art" may or may not be worth, there is the craftsman's time to consider, and this becomes an entirely different matter from any comparisons to machined engraving. Machines, of course, are automated and they work quickly from design templates already created for the purpose. Although the machines themselves need to be paid for, you do not need to be an engraver to use one. The results are perhaps "OK," but they bear no comparison to the quality of hand-engraving (like the comparison of computer-generated sounds to those of actual musical instruments.)

Hand-engraving takes a great many years to master. It's not only a matter of learning to manage the variety of graver tools to make the different kinds of cuts, but also one of learning how to create images of various sorts, and how to design these to fill the spaces you have. In all, its often the case with custom work, that more time can be spent in developing a particular design than in the actual cutting.

So, assuming our engraver is trying to earn a living, and needs to gross at least $30 bucks an hour (a gross income of maybe something like $60,000), he couldn't afford to spend more than 11 1/2 hours on the project -- start to finish. And I can promise you that Knodle would have invested every bit of that, and a good deal more.

Having arrived at this point, now let's add in the question of what one-of-a-kind "art" may be worth, and we see that we didn't pay anything for that. Those who would not be willing to pay $350 to have what you have, simply are not interested in getting the real McCoy--it's not a matter of whether or not you got what you paid for. (Bill Harms)

Go to Jeff Knodle’s site and check out the reel seat (under Gallery) in question. It is quite nice but I tend to agree with you. (Martin Jensen)

If all you want is some lettering, he's really expensive. However, when you get into "art", which I'd say his engravings are, maybe not too high. For instance, Jimmy Acord gets in the same price neighborhood for his leather work. I just wish I could afford it. (Neil Savage)

If you are talking a true engraving, a process of gouging the metal with a tool, where extraordinary control and skill are required three hundred and fifty dollars is a real bargain!

I looked at the work on the web site and the work may have been done by etching either with laser or acid etc. and it is still nice work requiring considerable talent but allowing some leeway for making corrections to the drawing. $350. is still not an unfair price for that talent or skill.

Can you get Super Bowl tickets for that kind of money? Even if you could the experience would only last a few hours but this artwork will last centuries. Dentists, Doctors, lawyers, CEOs, etc. often make far, far, more than that for their time and skill.

I would suggest talking to the artist and ask him his credentials, his training, his process, etc. and then make up your own mind. (Dick Steinbach)

Also, he could be using one of those little diamond tipped electric vibrators and calling that engraving as well.

Again, ask about his process, he might just be tracing stencils which is quite easy. (Dick Steinbach)

I can't tell for sure from the pictures in his gallery, but I don't think he'd be able to get away with anything except true engraving on firearms. Anything less would destroy the value of the weapon. (Neil Savage)

If you live in Germany, don't forget the long time tradition of the German engravers. May be a little "baroque" for somebody, but for sure of great effect. (Marco Giardina)