Choosing Your Name Tag
Selecting a plate for your engraving needs is a combination of what's practical, and what's appropriate to your tastes and the application.
On the practical side one needs to make sure the plate will fit the mounting area, and look right once it's mounted. A mounted plate should show some wood top/bottom and left/right - avoiding a plate exactly the same size as the mount. This is not only more pleasing to the eye but a name tag that extends to the edge of the mount is subject to catching on things - like hands and dust rags. So, for example, if your mounting area is 1" tall then the plate height should be no more than 7/8" - allowing 1/16" of wooden margin above and below the tag. In most cases the height, not the length, is the restricting factor.
Having said that, a good way to determine the size plate to use is to get a piece of scrap paper or cardboard, use a ruler and sissors to cut out a particular size, and then hold that against the mounting area. Too big or too small will be obvious. Trim your scrap - or cut a new piece - until what you end up with looks the way you want it. If it looks good to you, then it's good.
The 2nd practical consideration is will the plate accommodate the wording you want to engrave? With computer engraving now in common use the question "Will it fit" no longer applies. Wording can be engraved so small as to be illegible and most all engravers have a feature that automatically condenses a font when you enter more copy than would normally fit the space. So the question now is "How will this look" rather than can we get this on there.
One of our main functions is working with our customers to ensure the engraving looks nice to you. But thumb rules are handy in the beginning. One of those is that a plate looks best when 1/2 the height is engraving and the other 1/2 is margin. You can put more engraving than that on a plate and still be OK, but not a great deal without creating a "busy" plate. We try to avoid having more than 4 lines of engraving on a 1" plate. Even at that, one if not more of the lines will need to be pretty small. A 3/4" plate can accommodate 3 lines. These aren't set rules, but guidelines to bear in mind. We're here to help.
We offer 3 different types, or styles, of engraved plates; the first being nameplates that we shear here in our shop.
Standard Engraved Name Plates
We offer nameplates in leaded engravers brass - satin or polished, Matte black brass, Nickel/Silver - satin or polished, and anodized aluminum for outdoor name tags. Plates are cut to your order and size requirements. In addition to square corners; notched (shown above) or rounded (radius) corner treatments are offered. Plates can be ordered with adhesive backing or with holes for screw or brad mount. These engraved name plates are suitable for any application.
Many of our customers turn to gold border or die-stamped shapes when they're looking for something "special". The fact is, it doesn't work that way. The engraving makes the plate - the plate doesn't make the engraving. By that I mean you can take the fanciest plate in the world, do a mediocre engraving job on it, and end up with a mediocre plate. On the other hand, even on a plain plate, with a great engraving job you get a great plate. Our point is that creating a "special" plate, doesn't necessarily mean it has to be engraved on an expensive blank. But we do stock them, if that's your preference.
Die-stamped plates in special shapes.
There is no mystery to die-stamped, also called die-cut, plates. If you think of a cookie cutter for metal then you have it. The machines that do this are large, the die's expensive, and those are the reasons few engravers have one. Most of us buy these from our suppliers and are limited to the die's they have. None the less, for certain applications these blanks are tailor made for the job. The round-end plates on the left are exceptional on picture or art frames. We offer a small variety. To view the selection see our die-stamped page
Specialty Plates - Black Brass / Gold borders
The photo's above are only two examples. Specialty plates are also die-stamped; but all feature a border. Most specialty plates start out life as polished brass, which is then silk-screened to create the black engraving area - leaving the polished border. You should remember a specialty plate offers less engraving area than an engraved plate the same size, as you can't engrave on the border. These nameplates range from simple rectangular plates, to double edge borders, to blue marble. Various sizes are avilable with many more than can be special ordered. To view our selection go to our Gold Border Plates page
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