Today engraving is becoming a bit misunderstood. Like many terms today, the meaning is being re-defined to serve the times. Earlier definitions of the term included words like incising and cutting. This would lead one to believe that something is being cut into. Today the definition must include etching and marking as modern methods do not always include cutting into anything.

It did not take long for man to begin utilizing metal for his engraving tools once it became accessible. Soon they were using tools created from iron and steel to cut into softer metals and alloys like copper, brass and pewter. As skill improved complex designs became collectable fine art. On many occasions the engraving became more precious than the item itself.

Up to this time the entire job was performed by hand. An artist would draw out the work manually. When the art was prepared the artist would use specially honed hand tools known as burins to cut and carve the art into the project one line at a time. The procedure required great skill. The engraver not only needed to create the artwork, they would have to make and sharpen their tools to cut precisely. This process was extremely time consuming and required great skill and expertise. People at the top of this trade are recognized as masters.

During the early 1900′s a machine began use in the profession known as the pantograph. It made the process faster and easier for the operator. The pantograph is a tracing machine. It is designed in a way that the stylus is used to follow a an original or pattern. On another part of the machine the cutter would duplicate the pattern accurately, usually smaller than the original. Cutting it into the project material. The pantograph was a staple tool in most jewelry stores and was the state-of-the-art for quite some time.

Today, computer controlled engraving is the standard. This method has made engraving affordable to the consumer as well as quite rapidly prepared. As computers progress so does the art form. Modern computer driven machines are designed to be easy to operate. A person learning the hand methods required years to perfect their craft. A computer operated system can be operated within hours with minimal computer skills. Today the skills required by an engraver are in the form of computer graphics and layout.

It is true that computer controlled engraving cannot reproduce the intricate cuts and designs possible only with hand engraving. The computer methods do provide speed and exactness. Today both methods are employed. The hand methods have been modernized and are practiced as an art form. Computer engraving is utilized in many industries as well as practiced as and art form. There is a further discussion with images at Your-Door-Knocker.com/engraving

There is a wide range of uses for engraving. One of the earliest commercial uses revolved around the invention of the printing press. Images were carved into blocks of wood that could be placed into the printing press to reproduce the images. All early printing prepared their images in this manner. Of course metal engraving advanced rapidly also. Engraving was performed on everything from door knockers and name plates to trophies and awards.

Engraving is an important part of our past. As time and technology goes on, it will play an important part of our future as well. See our line of engraved brass products at Your-Door-Knocker.com

Like our door knockers our engraved door plates include standard engraving.

Now Available At A Special Introductory Price.

See them at this page

http://www.your-door-knocker.com/engraved-plates.html

It amazes me each time we go out to melt brass for our products that we are basically using the same processes practiced thousands of years ago in the bronze age.

Fortunately today we do not have to go out and find the ore and develop hot fires for our furnaces. We have a much easier time performing our work but the fact remains that the process is very much the same. Both our ancestors and ourselves melt metal and pour it into molds to make items needed.

Engraving is also an ancient art form some say dates back to the cavemen and the images scratched onto the walls of caves.

More realistically engraving evolved with the ability to work with wood and metal.

I guess that by being an engraver and a foundry man I am attracted to ancient art forms, the culmination of which is our engraved brass door knockers.

Combining engraving and cast brass to make wonderful personalized ornamental items also is not new. Brass has been one of the most popular mediums for engravers for centuries.

We have in our modern times electricity to power buffers and sanders and gasses such as propane and acetylene to make heat.

It is amazing though how much of our work is done with our hands. That is what separates us from the large production companies who only mass produce items.

Each step of our production is performed or processed by a person. I guess that makes the YDK line of products a bit old fashioned.

Out in the elements a protective coating is needed to prevent the brass from oxidizing or tarnishing. This is the process that happens when oxygen and atmospheric gasses comes into contact with the surface of the brass.

Most manufacturers use a high quality clear lacquer to coat the brass and thus protect it.

When a brass door knocker is engraved the engraving process cuts into the surface of the metal. If it is lacquer coated the engraving will also cut through the coating exposing the metal behind it. The exposed metal in the engraved area will oxidize and tarnish in a short time.

An engraved door knocker should be lacquer coated after the engraving process. This seals the entire door knocker and prevents your investment from deteriorating prematurely.

At our Your Door Knocker studio we dip our products in high quality UV resistant clear lacquer as one of the last steps in the production process. This completely seals the door knocker and ensures a long life.

When it comes to engraved door knockers, some fonts will be better than others.

Most engravers would use the diamond drag method of engraving for a brass door knocker. This method works by dragging a precision sharpened diamond tipped stylus across the surface of the door knocker to scratch in a pattern . Brass is a relatively soft metal so this method works extremely well. It creates crisp lines with which to form letters.

Some fonts use a single line to make the letter while others use 3 or more side by side to make the letter bolder.

When engraving a door knocker you really want the engraving to show up from a short distance. For this reason the bolder the letter is the easier it is to read. Boldness is achieved by using more lines to form the letter. A one line font uses just one scratch per thickness of the letter. This is great for small letters on jewelry and such but not so good for larger items like door knockers. Here we need at least a two line font.

Most two line fonts form outlines of the letters. The letter is hollow, that is there is no fill. For many door knockers this works very well.

Three or more line fonts use the additional lines to fill in the letters thus making the letters stand out more.

Font choices usually include the standard Helvetica, Roman, English and Script fonts as well as a selection of ornamental fonts. You will want to make your choice based on the style of the door knocker and the effect you wish to create. You can see our Your-Door-Knocker font choices here.

Font choice has a big effect on engraved door knockers. Be sure to take a little time when picking our your font.

Typically there are three variations of the name. One is to place just the last name on the door knocker. Another is the possessive version with a ‘s on the end. The last variation is a plural version with an s on the end of the name.

Before we go any further let me state that all three methods are correct on engraved door knockers. It just depends on what the you want to say.

The most common method is to place the last name alone in the engraving area of the door knocker. This method is simple and elegant.

The possessive version with the ‘s is also popular. This one is saying that this house belongs to this family. From an engravers standpoint there are a couple issues with this method. One is that the hyphen ‘ does not always stand out as well as the other letters on an engraving. This causes the engraving to be visually off a bit even though it is not. It also adds two characters to the line. This may be beneficial if the name is short. It will help fill the engraving space more efficiently. In the case of a long name it may take up to much space thus forcing the engraving to be smaller to fit into the space available. In the case of a last name ending with an s the plural would be a hyphen without an additional s. I recommend avoiding this. When engraving a name ending with an s with a hyphen following it the finished engraving looks off center. This again is due to the added hyphen not being as visible as the other letters.

The plural version is nice. It says more than one family member lives at this house. An s added to the end of the name only adds one character and will seldom cause a problem. In some instances it could cause confusion as to whether the s is part of the name or is a plural version of the name.

As I mentioned earlier the most common method is to put just the last name on the engraved door knocker. If you are in doubt this is usually the best choice.

Nothing personalizes a house like an engraved door knocker.

Well, that depends on the circumstances of the question.

For most engravers who charge per per character or letter for their engraving, spaces do not count.

If you are counting letters to fill a limited engraving area such as putting an engraving on one of our door knockers, spaces do count. A space takes up space so to say. They use up some of that valuable horizontal engraving area just like all the other characters do.

The actual effects of the space depends on a couple factors. The primary one being the font used. Some fonts are more condensed than others. They will take up less horizontal space per letter than a font that is not condensed. Another factor is the letters being used to make up the engraving. Some take more horizontal space than others. An example would be to use your word processor and type a series of ten “i’s” next to a series of ten “A’s”. The difference in the length of the lines is what we are talking about.

The font chosen combines with the actual selection of letters numbers and spaces making up the engraving determines how much horizontal room is needed. This is an important factor for engraving our door knockers.

On our site we have specified an allowable number of characters per line that can be engraved on our door knockers. This number is rather general. We do not know what font will be selected or what letters will be used before an order is placed on the web site.

When asked we can usually get a few more letters than we specify on the site. Especially if a condensed font is used. We can also vary the space between the letters as well as stretch and shrink lines with our computer driven engraving system. Any of these tricks taken to extremes is not very attractive. They must be used conservatively to remain a quality engraving.