I am looking to make either a tag with our logo (a capital K of a
certain font) laser engraved on it or our logo cast as a charm. I do
NOT want the standard metal tags that look and feel cheap, but
something a little thicker and that is a square with the hole in the
square (as opposed to on the outside of the square). If you have any
leads on metal tags, laser engraving, or casting please let me know.
Metals would be silver and gold plated preferably.
Thank you,
Amy
You are describing Vermeil (gold over- usually fine .999 - silver).
The costs involved could be greatly reduced if you reconsidered your
substrate. It seems to me a waste of money to use silver as the base
metal if plating your tags gold…Why not use a white alloy - or
brass? That said, you can have tags cast from a wax or rigid model by
any number of services-i like Hoover and strong…very reasonable
prices and fast turn around time. For small tags it may cost in the
35 dollar range for about 250 (or more) plating would be extra (i’m
not certain H&S does plating though- I use red sky for big jobs or
local plating services for production runs (in general, more than 100
pieces) in a thicker plate than i can do in the studio with my
homemade rectifier, which deposits a virtual film of gold, on the
substrate)
If you want an original tag consider a non-metal one. One colleague I
know does his out of shrinkable plastic and/or polymer clays. He can
then coordinate the tag colour to various pieces in a particular
collection keeping the style and logo the same and moreoften uses
clear shrink stuff with his logo as a brand identifier. The
important thing is to keep the same style as an indication of your
brand. So in making any decision about design or materials make sure
its something that can grow with your lines and that you can be
comfortable with in the long term… customers will come to look for
that id as an indication of your authentic work- so carefully design
it and if you are going to send out the work ( you could cast it
yourself in cuttlefish bone or any direct casting method( set your
model up to cast 6-8 small tags in one piece that you can easily
separate by using a cut-off wheel or simply sawing the individual
pieces apart then cast the single 8-up model in cuttlebone,
plaster/investment, sand, delft clay etc. ) if you aren’t experienced
in nor have access to casting equipment…There are many substrates
out there that will look professional, unique and not cheap that
don’t have to be metal. However, if you want metal conssider a cheap
base and have them plated with a thicker than ordinary coating of 18
kt. yellow
Aside from having them cast you could also set up a die and using an
arbor press ( hand style of lever operated) press out required number
from your blanking die. Once you make a die blank they will make
hundreds of small tags before you need to replace the die. they too
can be set up to make multiple copies in one pressing by setting it
up for any number to be pressed at once( 6-10 is a good number to
base your model’s design on particularly if they are to be squaRe:
when designing the model you can either connect the individual tags
with small wax wires- much like model airplanes or cars set up their
pieces to be separated from plastic grid-like “sheest”, or make a
strip that you would need only make one cut between the tags to
separate them…there are many easily executed possibilities wherin
you get numerous pieces from a single casting or pressing…Hope this
helps in some way…and If you need clarification feel free to
contact me off list…rer
How many did you what to make?
Dan Culver