Hand Engraving – A Dying Art

Old School Stone Wheel Hand Engraving

The lost art form of Stone Wheel Hand Glass Engraving also known as Carborundum Wheel and Copper Wheel Engraving in glass and crystal. This method was very popular in the early 1900’s to the mid 1900’s and later, there were many large engraving factories around the country that produce mostly pattern work on a large array of glassware items and decorative products such as mirrors, hurricane shades, perfume trays etc. Unfortunately, with no trade school to teach new engravers the trade, all of glass engraving factories are gone by the wayside, they are gone today.

This form of engraving is considered a lost art form today with only a handful of engravers around who still practice the lost art. It is truly amazing to watch an engraver practicing his art, engraving a piece of glass with no guides to follow, sometimes marking the area of engraving using a china crayon and using only eyesight and imagination to guide him, every cut made into the glass is totally free hand, similar to painting on canvas. The finished cuts are much deeper, sharper look and have a very unique distinct look to the engraved area, you cannot duplicate these cuts with any other engraving process.

There are no trade schools where one could go to learn the craft any longer, usually it is passed down from a family member or a friend. It takes several years to perfect the trade. Hand etched product truly have a very unique look to the finished piece

The Hand Engraved Method of engraving is perfect for engraving monogram styles, either 3 letter monograms for initials or for engraving a name, name and date, or name, title, and date for groomsman and bridesmaid gifts. The Hand Engraving has a more custom look to the engraved letters than you would typically find using font styles when using the sandblasting method. We offer 7 different 3 letter monogram styles, single letter Old English style lettering and for engraving names and dates we offer 6 different layout styles which we can add a leaf pattern if you like for no addition, which makes the engraving more of a custom look. We also have 18 different Hand Engrave Design styles that we offer which are;

Palm Tree Design           Mallard Design           Clipper Ship Design         Rose Design           Eagle Design Ketch Design                Wheat Design               Sailfish Design              Sloop Design          Cherry Design      Horse Head Design        Galleon Design            Grape Design              Pineapple Design     Sailboat Design

You have a choice of engraving any design style above or one of 16 monogram styles that are included in pricing of each item. You can add any design style to a monogram style for an additional cost of $4.95 per piece.