Was talking with Chris D about getting myself some work through some local jewelry stores doing script and boarders and such and he said someone had come up with a pricing list? Did that ever get made?
Its not a strange thing that nobody wants to talk about prices - It's different for everyone. Are you the best guy in the county or region? A new guy trying to break into the business? Are jewelers in your area clamoring for engravers? What do local jewelers charge for these services (assuming people want it...)?
If a jeweler can make 3X on your labor they'll love you. So $100 an inch for a border for "them" becomes 33/inch for you.
I read here recently about someone who did a 1/2" cube on all 6 sides in different levels of difficulty and came up with a price for each.
Remember 1/2 X 1/2" square is only 1/4 square inch, so 400/square inch is not unusual as a minimum.
Do the work (the best you can, not the fastest..), time yourself, evaluate your quality and price accordingly.
I agree a price list is critical, so your jeweler customer knows how much to estimate for their clients;
you just gotta make your own. Good luck!
I don't want to rain on your parade but I can tell you from experience that there's not a ton of money to be made in the jewelry trade for hand engravers these days. I service most all the stores in my city of 600,000 people since i'm the only hand engraver in town. I doubt I do more than $3000 in a good year from this type of work. People just don't want to pay the premium to have items hand cut when a CNC machine can do the same lettering at a fraction of the price. Most people don't care how their lettering is cut. Only how cheaply it can be done. A new engraver recently came to me asking about his plan to leave his card with all of the bridal shops in town thinking that he could make a living lettering cake knives and silverware and such. I had to break it to him that most of this stuff is silver plated these days and I for one refuse to cut it. One mistake can destroy months of profit. Real silver items are a rarity. I may cut 3 Sterling baby cups a year. As for hand engraved rings and the like, most of these things are already engraved by skilled workers overseas that work for a fraction of what I must charge. Of course there are exceptions. This is just my town. Your's may be a different story. I bill out at $60 an hour with a $30 minimum for jewelry items. Generally if you are working for yourself and charging less,, you'll starve. Just be aware of what you are getting into.
Thanks Layne, that’s a good point. I wasn’t quite looking to fully make a living from lettering. I was more of hoping to get a little on the side of my full time bench job, was hoping to eventually go down to 4 days a week at work with this (nothing but jewelry repairs is killing me), and hoping to get engraving experience slowly instead of just jumping into a gun or something above my level