Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Jewelry Engraving

I will not be surprised by 2009’s Mother’s Day. The 2008 observance caught me off guard. I found myself in a crowded mall the day before the holiday, frantically searching for gifts for my mom and mother-in-law. This year, I am planning ahead. Each lady will receive a pendant engraved with her name interwoven with my own.

“I am totally different than other engravers because I do hand engraving. It is like a fine art,” explained Hany Ongyan, owner of Master of Hand Engraving & Jewelry Repair, located downtown on Sixth Avenue (619-702-7390). “Some people don’t appreciate the art and don’t want to pay for it, and some people do understand it. There are not too many hand-engravers anymore. I think I am one of the last ones in San Diego. Other engravers use a machine.”

Ongyan uses a tiny engraving tool called a graver. “I can make the letters very, very tiny, where you need a microscope on it to see it. I once did 100 letters in two rows.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

When it comes to lettering and designs, “You can choose whatever you want, or you can do it with your own handwriting. This is my specialty. Some customers want to duplicate their own handwriting, so I have them write it and I copy it.” Ongyan can also do symbols or designs.

Hand-engraving lasts longer than machine-engraving, Ongyan told me. “I have seen some hand-engraving jobs from the 1940s, and it is still readable and very good. With hand-engraving, you make a cut inside the metal, which is deeper than a machine-engraving; with machine-engraving, you just scratch the surface.”

Turnaround time for Master of Hand Engraving & Jewelry Repair is two to three weeks. Prices are given per job, depending on the amount of hours needed to complete the engraving.

Brian Salmon, co-owner of SRI Engraving in North Park (619-546-0893), does metal etching and cutting by machine. “Normally, if it is a hand-drawn design, it needs to get into the computer. We can scan it as long as it is in-line art, very fine lines. We have in-house graphic design, so we can transfer it for them, if they are not capable, for a small price. But if they can get us the design in a file, we load it into our computer, take their piece, and etch it or cut it accordingly. We can cut through the steel, silver. We can’t deal with bronze, copper, and brass.…

“I cannot do the inside of a ring,” said Salmon. “I use a laser. It doesn’t actually remove the metal. Our laser will etch onto it or cut all the way through it. If you wanted to have the inside of a ring done, that has to be done by hand.”

With the etching process, “It chemically bonds to it. It heats the metal. There are a couple of ways we can do it, depending on the type of material. One of the metals, the stainless steel, we can spray a coating on, and then when we hit it with the laser, the heat changes the molecular structure of the metal and then bonds the solution to it and turns it black. So, everywhere that we hit it, it turns it black. And then if we use an aluminum, it heats it so much that it changes the color of it, and that is there forever.”

For fonts, “If we don’t have it, and you have a font that you want, just make sure we know where to get it, or you bring it to us.”

Prices are given per job, and turnaround time is one to two weeks.

Salmon referred me to Matthew Cirello, owner of Ciryellow Creations, also located in North Park (619-201-4668, ciryellow.com). “I am a custom jeweler, and I can do custom engraving,” Cirello answered. “I do hand-engraving. I have about four different ways that I can engrave, and I can do an acid etch as well. Acid etch is where you take a sulfur nitrate — a Sharpie marker would even work — and that protects the metal and anything that is not covered in your design, it will eat it away. Kind of like sandblasting, but instead you are actually eating away the metal with an acid.”

Cirello will not work on titanium, and his price is by the hour.

How do I choose between hand- and machine-engraving? “If someone wants accuracy,” said Cirello, “I would say laser-engraving is the way to go. If they want something unique, one-of-a-kind, personal, then I would have it hand-done.”

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Croome Brothers Trio, Jack Tempchin, Ricky, Swami & the Bed Of Nails, Kahlil Nash

Acoustic and electric in Del Mar, La Jolla, Little Italy, and City Heights
Next Article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?

I will not be surprised by 2009’s Mother’s Day. The 2008 observance caught me off guard. I found myself in a crowded mall the day before the holiday, frantically searching for gifts for my mom and mother-in-law. This year, I am planning ahead. Each lady will receive a pendant engraved with her name interwoven with my own.

“I am totally different than other engravers because I do hand engraving. It is like a fine art,” explained Hany Ongyan, owner of Master of Hand Engraving & Jewelry Repair, located downtown on Sixth Avenue (619-702-7390). “Some people don’t appreciate the art and don’t want to pay for it, and some people do understand it. There are not too many hand-engravers anymore. I think I am one of the last ones in San Diego. Other engravers use a machine.”

Ongyan uses a tiny engraving tool called a graver. “I can make the letters very, very tiny, where you need a microscope on it to see it. I once did 100 letters in two rows.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

When it comes to lettering and designs, “You can choose whatever you want, or you can do it with your own handwriting. This is my specialty. Some customers want to duplicate their own handwriting, so I have them write it and I copy it.” Ongyan can also do symbols or designs.

Hand-engraving lasts longer than machine-engraving, Ongyan told me. “I have seen some hand-engraving jobs from the 1940s, and it is still readable and very good. With hand-engraving, you make a cut inside the metal, which is deeper than a machine-engraving; with machine-engraving, you just scratch the surface.”

Turnaround time for Master of Hand Engraving & Jewelry Repair is two to three weeks. Prices are given per job, depending on the amount of hours needed to complete the engraving.

Brian Salmon, co-owner of SRI Engraving in North Park (619-546-0893), does metal etching and cutting by machine. “Normally, if it is a hand-drawn design, it needs to get into the computer. We can scan it as long as it is in-line art, very fine lines. We have in-house graphic design, so we can transfer it for them, if they are not capable, for a small price. But if they can get us the design in a file, we load it into our computer, take their piece, and etch it or cut it accordingly. We can cut through the steel, silver. We can’t deal with bronze, copper, and brass.…

“I cannot do the inside of a ring,” said Salmon. “I use a laser. It doesn’t actually remove the metal. Our laser will etch onto it or cut all the way through it. If you wanted to have the inside of a ring done, that has to be done by hand.”

With the etching process, “It chemically bonds to it. It heats the metal. There are a couple of ways we can do it, depending on the type of material. One of the metals, the stainless steel, we can spray a coating on, and then when we hit it with the laser, the heat changes the molecular structure of the metal and then bonds the solution to it and turns it black. So, everywhere that we hit it, it turns it black. And then if we use an aluminum, it heats it so much that it changes the color of it, and that is there forever.”

For fonts, “If we don’t have it, and you have a font that you want, just make sure we know where to get it, or you bring it to us.”

Prices are given per job, and turnaround time is one to two weeks.

Salmon referred me to Matthew Cirello, owner of Ciryellow Creations, also located in North Park (619-201-4668, ciryellow.com). “I am a custom jeweler, and I can do custom engraving,” Cirello answered. “I do hand-engraving. I have about four different ways that I can engrave, and I can do an acid etch as well. Acid etch is where you take a sulfur nitrate — a Sharpie marker would even work — and that protects the metal and anything that is not covered in your design, it will eat it away. Kind of like sandblasting, but instead you are actually eating away the metal with an acid.”

Cirello will not work on titanium, and his price is by the hour.

How do I choose between hand- and machine-engraving? “If someone wants accuracy,” said Cirello, “I would say laser-engraving is the way to go. If they want something unique, one-of-a-kind, personal, then I would have it hand-done.”

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Next Article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.