4 most annoying words to an engraver...

My favorite:
A gentleman brought me an older break action single shot 410. A no-name farm gun worth under $100. He talked about doing full coverage deep relief on the action, down the barrel, etc. He had the $ and understood it wasn't going to be cheap.

Then he said the key phrase: You think I'd get $xx.xx (my cost, plus 20%) from someone after you engrave it.

I told him the only way that gun would bring that type of figure is if he stapled a bunch of $100 bills to the stock. He didn't like that response.
Way to much HGTV watching w/ people thinking they've cornered the market.

Dan

I point out that there are still surviving engravers, but... Most of them are ancient and guard the secrets of their craft like dwarves in a Tolkien novel. Because they're so old, they have to work under microscope with little tiny tools because they have almost gone blind from the strain. Almost all of them lack a left thumb because they hit it so often with the hammer. So, if you want something done, better be quick about it - it's a dying art, with only a few youngsters like me. I also point out, I'm not only younger but way betterer looking.

There's a clockmaker in the area who runs a similar story - he'll tell you he's backed up for over two years, probably has less time then that on this earth, and takes his payment in advance with the caveat that he'll call you when the work is done. If you call him he'll just invite you to pick up your clock and begone.

What will it cost if I do the polishing and rebluing and you just cut it. The same because I don't trust someone else's polish job an I have to do it all over.

Most frustrating question I hear all the time:cant a CNC machine do it faster,better,more price friendly?,etc.