Laser engraving is an art and a science. It requires a special laser engraving machine. Not all laser machines can properly engrave on anodized aluminum. Even if you have the right machine, you need to:
Maglite® m3a in dark green
Try engraving some test pieces to find the right voltage
The right number of passes
The right position on the Maglite® barrel
The right size of imprint, so the logo doesn’t get distorted at the top and bottom edges.
Make a jig, so you can engrave all the barrels at the same exact place.
The best way to get a Maglite engraved is to find a professional engraver, and one that engraves Maglites® all the time. Of course, the internet is the best place to find such a company.
Are you thinking about giving your employees a safety award for having no accidents in 12 months? If you want to use engraved Maglites, here are 5 valuable suggestions:
Plan ahead. Maglite engraving usually takes 1 or 2 weeks. It can be done faster, if you have a short deadline.
Happy Safety Award Employees
Find your best version of your company logo. Vector art is needed for a superior job of engraving. A hi resolution jpg will work, but the promotional product distributor needs to convert it to vector art, the language of laser machines.
Pick a reputable on-line Maglite representative, and one who communicates well with you.
Choose a Maglite that is the right size for your employees. The biggest one holds 4 D cells. The smallest one holds one AAA cell.
Give out your engraved Maglite safety awards at a dinner, or a special meeting. That makes the gift seem more valuable, and memorable.
Here are 3 secrets that no Maglite vendor has ever told you:
ML25LT Model in Red, 2-C Cell Size
Promotional Maglites are still made in the USA, despite any rumors to the contrary. How do they do that, and stay competitive? I don’t know.
MagLite does their own laser engraving for promotional purposes of your company logo. A few professional engravers still do this, but MagLite started a year ago to get a share of the engraving market.
Still old fashioned. Maglite still does things the old fashioned way. They print out their invoices on a dot matrix printer, using carbonless copies, and snail mail them out to the distributors.
Tony Sabo & Dave Navoyosky at the New Product Showcase (NPS) in Cleveland OH Jan 19, 2016
I just came back from a promotional product show in Cleveland, and was surprised to see that Maglite® has come up with 5 new Promotional maglights (Maglites) for businesses. I didn’t know Maglite® Promo had any more tricks up their sleeves. (Maglites® is the correct spelling, but some of my best customers find my website by misspelling the word).
Tony Sabo is our local Maglite® representative. In this picture Tony is showing me the new ML25LT and the new ML50LX. All the new models use 2 or 3 C batteries. That should give you an idea of the size of these gems.
ML25LT Model in Red, 2-C Cell SizeML50LX Model in Black. 2-C Cell SizeML50L Gift Box
The 5 new torches are available for laser engraving your corporate logo on the barrel or on the head. Companies buy hundreds of promotional Maglites®…..and pass them out to their best clients. They also make great safety awards in manufacturing plants. Here is a glimpse of some of the 5 new engraved flashlights. All of them can be seen (and ordered) here…New Maglite® Flashlights.
Personalizing pocket knives is an art, because it’s not the same as using a color office printer and printing on a piece of white paper. Knives present a unique set of obstacles such as:
Color of the material
Type of material (wood, metal, bone, synthetic)
Irregular surface contour
Required durability of the imprint
These problems are not usually a direct concern of the customer unless his company logo has a lot of detail or requires a color imprint. Each logo imprinting request is handled one at a time. When our art department receives your logo, the artist looks at these questions:
Does the logo contain too much detail
Does the imprint contain text smaller than 6 point
Are the lines in the imprint thinner than 1 point
Is a color imprint required
These problems can be solved by our art department or yours. A complex logo can be simplified to eliminate the detail problem. Small text can either be eliminated or re-arranged somehow. Thin lines can be broadened. A black and white version can be made of your logo if needed.
Most pocket knives are laser engraved on the metal blade, metal handle, metal bolster, or the wooden handle. Laser engraving doesn’t offer color. However, laser engraving on stainless steel looks black or dark. Laser engraving on anodized aluminum handles looks white. And if doing this same method on a blackened metal blade or handle will look white.
Some knives can be pad printed on a handle in color, or screen printed on a metal surface.
Color added to laser engraving: Gold, white, silver, black, red, yellow, blue, or green.
Another imprinting option is Electro-etching, which looks dark on a stainless steel blade. This method of making personalized pocket knives is considered semi-permanent. It doesn’t go as deep into the metal as machine engraving and laser engraving. This leads to a final method of imprinting knives, which is machine engraving. This is like using the engraving machine that jewelers have to engrave your initials on a pendant. It is good for lettering only. It is permanent.
Most promotional items have their share of printing problems, but Pocketknives have a unique set of hurdles for the imprinter. That’s where Advantage-Advertising.com and Logo-Knives.com can use their experience to make your folding knife a cherished gift with your corporate logo.
