Process
Five stages, no surprises.
From first conversation to unmarked box. Nothing is cut until the client has approved a drawing and, where it matters, a physical proof.
How a commission runs
Typical duration is six to fourteen weeks. Restoration and armorial work runs longer.
Consultation
In person or by encrypted call
We look at the piece, or good photographs of it, and establish three things: what it is for, how long it must last, and who will see it. Budget comes after that, because the answers change what the work should be.
Drawing
Pencil, to size, on tracing paper
Every commission is drawn at actual size before it is quoted. Layout errors are free to fix in pencil and expensive to fix in metal. The client approves the drawing in writing, and the fixed price follows it.
Proof
On identical stock, where the piece warrants it
For laser work, parameters are proved on sacrificial stock of the same alloy and finish. For seals, three wax impressions. For hand work on a high-value piece, a sample panel cut in matching metal.
Execution
One piece at a time, on one bench
The commission is worked start to finish without interruption. Pieces are not stacked, queued, or left open overnight. Progress photographs are supplied on request and on nothing else.
Delivery
Unmarked, insured, or collected in person
The piece returns in plain packaging with no studio name, no branded documentation and no mention of contents. Working records and photographs are destroyed on handover unless you ask us to keep them.
Why the drawing stage is not optional.
A monogram that is two millimetres too wide is not a small problem; it is a new piece of metal. Interlaced ciphers in particular look correct in the head and wrong on the object, and the only way to know is to draw them full size and live with the drawing for a day.
Clients occasionally ask to skip it and go straight to cutting. We decline. It is the cheapest hour in the whole commission and it is the one that prevents the expensive ones.
A proof is evidence, not reassurance.
Proofs exist to catch the things drawings cannot show: how a laser parameter behaves on this batch of steel, whether an intaglio releases cleanly from hard wax, whether a shading scheme reads at arm's length as well as it does under a loupe.
Where a proof would tell us nothing we do not already know, we skip it and say so. We do not charge for ceremony.
Practical matters
- Lead time
Six to fourteen weeks for most commissions. Armorial and restoration work is quoted case by case and is rarely quick.
- Pricing
Fixed after drawing approval. Hand work is priced by the hour of cutting; laser work by setup plus run.
- Deposit
One third at drawing approval, balance on completion. No charge is taken before you have seen a drawing.
- Transit
Insured specialist courier both ways, or collection in person. Value is declared to the insurer and to nobody else.
- Refusal
The studio will decline work it believes will damage a piece or misrepresent its origin, and will say why.
Work begins with a conversation.
The studio takes a limited number of commissions each quarter. Enquiries are read by the engraver, not by an assistant.
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