Hand engraving is like calligraphy. There is something very personal and satisfying about both signing your own flute with a steel graver, and many customers find it an attractive - if non-essential - addition to an already unique flute.
Not only do our customers help to support this ancient art form, but they also have options in how their own flute is engraved. Different patterns are available, and head joints with engraved lip plates are a beautiful and practical addition frequently specified by owners of our instruments.
Hand Engraving
We like to think that the flute is more than a machine, a concept many moderns find quaint. As our customers know, we sometimes turn heads with our 19'th century approach to flutemaking, and our stubborn insistance on engraving every flute by hand is a typical cause. Why. the question goes, spend hours engraving the old-fashioned way when a machine can do it more easily?
We like to compare our flutes with a signed musical score or an autographed first printing from a fine publisher. The flute becomes personal with engraving, and all the more so when it is done by hand.Not to mention that good, sharp hand engraving sparkles with a lustre impossible to replicate with machinery.
