Sam Alfano, certified master engraver, musician, photographer, instructor, author and watchmaking hobbyist demonstrates hand engraving and diamond setting techniques to students and enthusiasts around the world. Known for his intricate designs, precise details and flawless execution, Sam’s engravings—on guns, knives, jewelry and other metalwork—are found in museums including the Smithsonian Institute and private collections. Just as popular, his scrollwork is included on the packaging of hundreds of everyday products like Dove chocolates and was even on promotional materials for the Royal Wedding. Eager to pass on his knowledge and expert advice to the next generation of engravers, Sam laughs that every beginner should “jump in with both feet!” Tune in to this For the Love of Jewelers podcast episode to hear Courtney Gray’s exciting discussion with a world-renowned metal magician.
Sam Alfano, certified master engraver, musician, photographer, instructor, author and watchmaking hobbyist demonstrates hand engraving and diamond setting techniques to students and enthusiasts around the world. Known for his intricate designs, precise details and flawless execution, Sam’s engravings—on guns, knives, jewelry and other metalwork—are found in museums including the Smithsonian Institute and private collections. Just as popular, his scrollwork is included on the packaging of hundreds of everyday products like Dove chocolates and was even on promotional materials for the Royal Wedding. Eager to pass on his knowledge and expert advice to the next generation of engravers, Sam laughs that every beginner should “jump in with both feet!” Tune in to this For the Love of Jewelers podcast episode to hear Courtney Gray’s exciting discussion with a world-renowned metal magician.
Courtney Gray:
Welcome to For the Love of Jewelers—a podcast brought to you by Rio Grande jewelry supply and hosted by yours truly, Courtney Gray. Now in our third season, we celebrate the unconditional strength driven by our passion to create and the motivating factors that enable us to adapt. We recognize the relevance and resilience of the jewelry industry through inspirational stories that challenge and honor its makers. Our journey, although unchartered, is one we are on together. Let’s pause, share and together discover the variety of silver linings gained from each personal story of innovation and determination.
Courtney Gray:
Sam Alfano is a certified master engraver and is also an accomplished musician, photographer, engraving instructor, and has demonstrated hand engraving and diamond setting techniques all over the globe. Sam continues to work on custom knives and jewelry, catering to advanced collectors in many countries. He has produced some of the finest engraved pieces made. Sam is best known for his intricate designs, precise detail, and flawless execution of this demanding art form. In addition to engraving, Sam's graphic illustrations are in use worldwide on thousands of products from book covers to clothing. He has authored several instructional engraving videos.
Courtney Gray:
Hey, guys. Courtney Gray here, For the Love of Jewelers. Welcome back. We have Sam Alfano with us, who is the godfather of engraving. Sorry to embarrass you right away, Sam. Welcome.
Sam Alfano:
I'm not sure I can live up to that, but hey, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me, Courtney.
Courtney Gray:
Absolutely. I'm so happy that we could make this happen and reconnect. I've met you at symposiums over the years, which I terribly miss those symposiums.
Sam Alfano:
We met at SNAG in New Orleans.
Courtney Gray:
You have a good memory.
Sam Alfano:
Yeah, because I remember when you approached me about this interview you forgot meeting me.
Courtney Gray:
No, I knew I met you.
Sam Alfano:
I don't know.
Courtney Gray:
How would I forget?
Sam Alfano:
I don't know. I was wondering.
Courtney Gray:
No.
Sam Alfano:
I guess I didn't make a good first impression. We met at SNAG. I miss the symposiums too. I miss JCK Show, working with Rio and all the other trade shows and things like that. Hopefully we can get back to normal soon.
Courtney Gray:
I know. It was such a cool place to just meet, and I do remember. How could I forget? Getting to just connect and collaborate and network and all the things. We'll see. We'll see what happens in the future. I know you're not a jeweler. I approached Sam to come talk with us today, guys, because engraving has come up so much lately in these conversations and in these episodes. The next step for not only the beginners who want to come in to engraving, but there's really seasoned, 25, 30-year experienced people who are just now starting to say, "Engraving is next for me. I want to start drawing on the metal and moving the material differently." I thought, "Let's get Sam on here." I know he said, "I'm not a jeweler, Courtney." I said, "Doesn't matter." You're a metal magician, so we definitely want to hear your perspective on the technique. What was the most significant part of your training as you began learning this technique?
Sam Alfano:
I guess the most significant part would be my two weeks of training with Lynton McKenzie, who was one of the greatest gun engravers in the world at the time. This was in 1982. I just hit the engravers lottery. I was able to train with him for a couple of weeks. It was a life-changing event. My work spiked as a result of being ... Prior to that I was pretty much a self-taught guy. I learned from books and whatever little bits and pieces I could find. Back in those days, not very many people were willing to share. In fact, I never found anyone who was willing to share. That was I guess a life-changing event for me and really got me going, got me to the bench, working professionally. He had actually worked in the workshop where he trained me, and I assumed his place at the bench for the next seven years.
Courtney Gray:
Wow. What were you doing during that time?
Sam Alfano:
I was gun engraving. That was a New Orleans arms company, where he had worked himself. Then he went off on his own, and I assumed his place at the bench, which they were some pretty big shoes to fill. I did my best and worked there for seven years.
Courtney Gray:
You did hit the lottery I guess.
Sam Alfano:
I did. To be able to study with somebody like that, it was incredible. I only knew one person who knew an engraver back in those days. I asked him, I said, "Would you talk to your engraver friend and ask him if he would tell me how to sharpen my gravers or could give me some information?" He says, "I'll talk to him and I'll let you know." He called me back and he said, "I talked to Gene." The guy's name was Gene. He said, "Not no, but hell no." That was the response I got. That was pretty typical back in the days. A lot of people didn't want to share information. I bought my first set of tools from a mail order catalog in the early '70s and didn't know what to do with them, plugged the gravers into the wooden handles and proceeded to scratch metal like crazy, not knowing how to sharpen them, not knowing what to do. When I was able to finally get some instruction, it was a godsend.
Courtney Gray:
I wonder why people kept things so close. It seems like that's changed some.
Sam Alfano:
It has changed. I think it's a carryover from the old ways. When you were the only engraver in the village, why would you want to teach other people to be engravers? Then the slices of the pie get smaller and smaller. You reserve that knowledge and that training for maybe your apprentice or your children. A lot of engravers back in the day, they grew up in the engraving shops of their fathers and grandfathers. I think hoarding that information was a carryover from those days. That's just a theory on my part. I don't know for sure. Nowadays if I don't want to teach you how to engrave there are a thousand other people that will. There's really no point in withholding information anymore.
Courtney Gray:
That's changed quite a bit. I'm grateful for that, because otherwise I feel like may not have this technique in the future if we don't share it with the next generations.
Sam Alfano:
People say, I hear it all the time, they find out that I'm an engraver, "Oh, that's a dying art." At one time it could've been. It's not now. Actually the best engraving the world's ever known is being done today. At one time it may have been a dying art, because people were not willing to share. They didn't want to pass it on. It's different today. We got plenty of schools, plenty of people willing to share. We have shows and demonstrations and videos and online forums and social media with lots of photos and things like that. It's a different world today. Thank goodness.
Courtney Gray:
Engraving has become this whole other part, its own technique I think. It probably already was. I feel like that's really shifted in the last few decades or so, where this is a whole different group of people that do this type of work. It lays over jewelry nicely, but also, like you said, the gun engraving and coin work and all the things that you do, can offer. Is there any material you don't work on?
Sam Alfano:
Oh yeah, there's plenty I don't work on. If it's an extremely hard material, hardened steel, I don't work on that. I don't work on titanium, the aerospace grade titanium. There are titaniums that can be engraved. Basically it boils down to if it's too hard to do my best work on, I'm not going to engrave it. I don't have anything to prove by trying to slog through miserably hard material. Back when I was younger and hungrier, I didn't turn down many jobs. If I could get it in the vice, by gosh, I'd find a way to cut it. I'm hopefully a little older and smarter now, so I don't do jobs that are such a struggle that it requires me to be resharpening my tools every five minutes. There's plenty of metals that I won't engrave.
Courtney Gray:
What's your suggestion for your students or for those folks out there who are thinking about trying a material? What would be the easiest or most relative to practice on?
Sam Alfano:
Mild steel practice plates, especially if you're using pneumatic system. It's hard to beat mild steel. It's inexpensive. The practice plates are readily available. They're two inch square. They cut very, very nicely. They fit on top of the vice. They make learning very easy, or they help make learning easy. Also if you're hand pushing, then copper is a good choice, because it's so soft. I would stay away from stainless steels and things like that. Save that for when you have more experience. Mild steel, copper, brass are all very pleasant metals to engrave.
Courtney Gray:
One of the biggest questions that comes up, or I guess it's a little bit of a fear, hesitancy for those jewelers that have mentioned are really excited to get into engraving, is the cost of equipment can get extensive, I think with any technique that we get into. Curious if you have any tips for those out there who are like, "I don't have the funds to really start with a microscope." What's the first thing they need to get? What could you do to practice without that gear?
Sam Alfano:
The equipment is expensive. There's no doubt. If you're going with a pneumatic system and the microscope and all of the accoutrements, yeah, it is expensive. Take up bass fishing and see how much money you're going to spend. If you can't afford the luxury of a bass boat and all the many thousands of dollars in equipment to go bass fishing, then you fish off the bank with a cane pole. You can have a great time fishing with that cane pole. With hand engraving, you can hand push for a few dollars. You can buy a graver and you can learn how to sharpen it. Jason Marchiafava has a brilliant hand push engraving video set that he sells. In fact, I think it's the only thing of its kind out there. There's no excuse not to start. If you don't have thousands of dollars, you can use some rudimentary tools and learn to engrave. I did. That's how I did. I learned with hammer and chisel. If you're getting into hard metals, then hand push has its limitations. Then you would drive that same tool with a chasing hammer, as opposed to pushing it through the metal by hand. There are less expensive options.
Sam Alfano:
However, those techniques of hand push and hammer and chisel have a very steep learning curve. It takes a long time to learn how to engrave that way. The pneumatic systems and the sharpening systems have taken a lot of the guesswork out of it. They've made it to where anybody can literally sit down and cut very nice lines their first attempt or their first day. If you want to get up to speed quickly, yeah, the expensive pneumatic systems with the microscope and the sharpening system and the vice and all that, it'll get you in the game very, very quickly.
Courtney Gray:
That's exciting to hear, because it can get overwhelming I think for people. It's like, "I can't do that yet, because I can't afford it." Just begin, you guys, and try it. You'll grow as you go, grow your bench as you go.
Sam Alfano:
Don't let not having the funds be ... Don't use that as an excuse not to do it. Jump into it. Get a hand push graver and start learning to engrave. Better yet, even get a sketchpad and start practicing your drawings, practice your layout skills, learn how to draw lettering, learn how to draw scroll work. What you do with that tool is only going to be as good as what you lay out on the plate, so while you're saving your money, hone your drawing skills.
Courtney Gray:
I would imagine that's pretty important, unless you're just doing regular things that already exist or designs that are out there for grabbing.
Sam Alfano:
It's extremely important that you have good pencil skills. In jewelry engraving, a lot of times we do just a repetitive pattern or variations of a few repetitive patterns, that don't really require a lot of drawing skills. You can learn how to lay those out. I tell my students, there's one particular border that I teach them, and I say, "This is the bread and butter of the jewelry engraver right here. You could almost make a living out of this one border and variations of it." If you want to really excel at hand engraving, if you want to do more than just the repetitive borders that you see on ring shanks and things like that, then there's just no way to avoid developing artistic skills to be able to draw ornamental scrolls and things like that. You just got to do it. It's fun. It's fun. I never looked at it as punishment. I love to draw. I draw every day. Right now I'm actually drawing a pair of Vans shoes for my wife. I'm drawing scroll work on these shoes. I'm loving every second of it. It's a blast.
Courtney Gray:
They're canvas, right? That would probably work pretty well.
Sam Alfano:
Yeah. They're white canvas, so it's a nice canvas. No pun intended.
Courtney Gray:
You may be headed into a whole other deal there with the Vans.
Sam Alfano:
I don't know. I'm not ready to be a shoe designer or a shoe decorator, a shoe artist. I have to say it is fun. I have enjoyed it.
Courtney Gray:
It's happening though, Sam. You're doing it.
Sam Alfano:
Maybe so, but the point is I like to draw. I draw all the time. That's part of what's made me a good engraver is being able to draw good designs.
Courtney Gray:
Absolutely. I think you're really known for your scroll work, and they're very identifiable as this is Sam Alfano. You've even done labels like Crown Royal I noticed.
Sam Alfano:
I have.
Courtney Gray:
What else have you done in that genre of the graphic design?
Sam Alfano:
Several years ago, just by sheer accident, I found one of my engraving designs being sold on iStock Photo, which is a stock agency where you go to license artwork for use for whatever, for your webpage, your product, your product packaging, your brochure, your catalog. I saw where this guy had traced my work and he was selling it. To make a long story short, I taught myself to draw scrolls on the computer very much like I would engrave them with the same characteristics. I started licensing my work also on the same agency. Over the course of about a dozen years I guess, I've licensed over 100,000 licenses. My scrolls are on everything from the royal wedding to Crown Royal whiskey to Dollar General face tissues. I'm even on the Affex brand toilet paper wrappers, believe it or not.
Courtney Gray:
Really?
Sam Alfano:
Yeah.
Courtney Gray:
I got to look at that. Oh my gosh. The Sam Alfano toilet paper, I love it.
Sam Alfano:
Just when you think you're a big shot and your stuff's on the royal wedding, you got to remember, you're also on toilet paper wrappers. Anyway, that's how that came about is I've been doing graphic designs and licensing that work for a number of years.
Courtney Gray:
I think that's incredibly smart that you did that.
Sam Alfano:
I would love to agree with that and say, "Oh yeah, it's because I'm really smart," but that's not the case. Like I said, I stumbled into it, and I saw an opportunity, and I said, "If that guy can sell my work, then I should be able to sell my work." I was right. I did. The rest is history. It's not because I'm smart. It just fell into my lap. I actually owe him a favor. If I hadn't found that, I would never have known that you could license artwork like that I was able to do and people would buy it. I actually owe him a favor, or he did me a favor.
Courtney Gray:
That's hilarious. That's so interesting. I think this is a topic, and it's a little off engraving, but I would love to, can we dive into that just for a second? What went into you getting those designs licensed, or can you touch on it?
Sam Alfano:
First of all, I had to learn how to draw them. I've been doing computer graphics for years, but I never really did vector artwork. Vector is different than raster or bitmap, which is painting. Vector is a different animal all together. To license them on iStock, I had to learn how to draw vector designs. I had to train myself to use Adobe Illustrator and figure it out. Then I had to apply to become an illustrator. My first two applications were denied because of technical errors in my drawings that I knew nothing about, so I had to figure out how to fix them. I finally fixed them. Third time was a charm. They took me in. They accepted me as an illustrator. Once I became an illustrator, I started drawing these designs and uploading them to the company. People that needed some scroll work for a T-shirt design or something like that, they would go to the agency and they would see my work and they would buy it and I'd get a royalty. It stays there. It can be licensed numerous times. Some of my designs have been licensed thousands of times. If you license it, you don't buy it, you don't own it. I still retain copyright on it. You just pay for the rights to use it. I guess that's pretty much how it came about and how it works. I hope I answered your question.
Courtney Gray:
You did. That's helpful. I think that's a mystery to a lot of us is how would I go about doing that. Do you get mailbox money from that, like a royalty?
Sam Alfano:
I do. It doesn't come in the mailbox. It's deposited into my account.
Courtney Gray:
We're so advanced these days.
Sam Alfano:
Yeah, man. While we're talking here and doing this interview, hopefully somebody's licensing one of my designs.
Courtney Gray:
That's awesome. That is so cool. From toilet paper to the royal-
Sam Alfano:
To the royal wedding.
Courtney Gray:
The Crown Royal and the band.
Sam Alfano:
I've been on lots of T-shirts and Dove chocolates and Smithsonian Institution used one of my designs for something in a brochure years ago. I've been on-
Courtney Gray:
What an honor.
Sam Alfano:
... bits and pieces of all kinds of stuff.
Courtney Gray:
How's that feel for you when-
Sam Alfano:
It's exciting. The way I find out though is stumbling on it accidentally or somebody will see the work and recognize my scroll work and send me an email and say, "Hey, is this yours?" Sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. That's how I find it, because if you go to the agency to license some artwork for something, they have a nondisclosure agreement with you. That's a personal confidential transaction between the customer and the agency. I just get paid, but I don't know who licenses the work. I might be in the store one day and I see, "I'll be darned, there's my scroll work on a wine bottle." I stumble on it. There have been a few-
Courtney Gray:
That's pretty [crosstalk 00:21:26].
Sam Alfano:
... times when I've been contacted maybe out of 100,000 licenses maybe a half a dozen times by customers saying, "Hey, I thought maybe you would like to see what we used your designs on," but it rarely happens, maybe half a dozen times out of 100,000. The rest of the time is somebody has spotted it or I've stumbled on it.
Courtney Gray:
How interesting. You don't even know what could potentially be out there with your work on it.
Sam Alfano:
I don't even know. Sometimes I do a reverse Google search on one of my images and it'll find where it's been used on a box of biscuits or a soft drink bottle or something like that.
Courtney Gray:
I love it.
Sam Alfano:
It's kind of cool.
Courtney Gray:
Your work's taking over the whole world.
Sam Alfano:
I wouldn't go that far. People see scroll work on things and they automatically assume it's mine. I go, "No no no no." I appreciate that, but there's a lot more out there that's not mine than is mine, but occasionally mine pops up.
Courtney Gray:
That's pretty fun. To go backwards a little bit, Sam, and talk just a little bit more about engraving, because I do feel like there's some mysteries to unveil for everyone in this community about, one of my big things was are we still hand engraving. I saw this on your FAQ page, so I know you know how to answer it. Is it still considered hand engraving if you're using a machine?
Sam Alfano:
Of course it is.
Courtney Gray:
It was so cool to read, so I'd love to share about that.
Sam Alfano:
It may be a pneumatic hand piece, but lay it on the bench and see how much work it gets done. No, it goes in your hand and the hand guides it. It's exactly like hammer and chisel engraving, where a hammer taps the chisel and propels it through the metal, only instead of a hammer, we've got a little piston that's in the hand piece. The end of the tool, the graver itself hasn't really changed in a couple hundred years. We've got better metal than we had 200 years ago, but the principle is still the same. It's still a tiny chisel, and it's guided entirely by hand. Now some of the old-school guys, when the pneumatic stuff first came out, they thought, "It's not really hand engraving, it's machine engraving or whatever," but we don't really get that argument anymore. All of you have to do is look at the beautiful work that's being done with these tools. It doesn't matter how the chips get on the floor. The important thing is that the quality work is being done. My chisels don't really care whether they have a hand piece behind them or whether they're in a wooden handle. They can produce beautiful work. Of course it's hand engraving.
Courtney Gray:
I would imagine the biggest part of engraving is going to be that sharpening skill that you mentioned where it was a, "Hell no. I'm not teaching you how to do that."
Sam Alfano:
It used to be, because to teach somebody to sharpen, you'd say, "Okay, now you lay your graver on the stone like this. Okay, now lift it up about this much and then swipe it back and forth left and right a whole bunch of times." Already you're confused. Today we've got sharpening systems where the graver goes in a fixture and you dial in the correct degrees, and it rides up and down on a tool post over a rotating lap. We take all the guesswork out of sharpening gravers. I tell my students, and I teach them graver sharpening day one. Monday morning we learn to sharpen gravers. I say, "In an hour from now, you are going to be a graver sharpening expert, just like I am, because I don't have any special graver sharpening skills, I just dial everything in on the sharpening fixtures and the results come out perfect every time, and they will for you too."
Sam Alfano:
Back in the day that wasn't the case. It was easy to introduce inconsistencies in sharpening. You had to do it for a long time to get good at it. You change the angle of a graver one or two degrees, and it changes the behavior of the tool in the metal. You don't know, did I sharpen it wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Am I holding it wrong? We don't know. With the sharpening systems, they take the guesswork out of it. You sharpen according to the specifications, and we remove that variable. If you're having trouble engraving and you look at the tool and it's sharpened properly, all right, we can eliminate that. We know it's not that. It could be something else.
Courtney Gray:
Such a science to all of it too it seems like. Once you get it down and get the practice time in, I guess it starts to become easier.
Sam Alfano:
It does. My students, like I said, they cut beautiful designs on day one. They're simple designs. They're simple leaves and borders and things like that. It's exciting to see somebody come in that's never sat at a bench before or used a tool like that, learned how to sharpen a tool, and then sit down and start cutting.
Courtney Gray:
Super gratifying. When did it become important for you in your career, because I think you're over 50, right, Sam-
Sam Alfano:
Yeah. I'll be-
Courtney Gray:
... at this point?
Sam Alfano:
... 69 in January.
Courtney Gray:
Happy birthday almost. Not really. In case I forget.
Sam Alfano:
My neighbors sent me a happy birthday. Today is October the 28th. My neighbor texted me, said, "Happy birthday." I said, "Thank you." I said, "My birthday's not until January, but I'll take it."
Courtney Gray:
Why not? Happy birthday to you too. I love that.
Sam Alfano:
I'll be a ripe old 69 in January.
Courtney Gray:
Seasoned we call that. My band mates are all 67, and we call them seasoned instead of ... Actually, I called them old on stage the other day. They got over it. I'm wondering, when did it get important, become really important for you to teach, or did that just come to you as far as requests and people wanting to learn what you do?
Sam Alfano:
I used to teach five-string banjo, so I'm not a stranger to students and teaching, although it wasn't engraving. I knew how to teach. I enjoyed teaching. Mid-'90s I guess I was approached by GRS to teach classes at their training center. I turned them down. I said, "I really appreciate that. I'm honored that you would invite me to become a teacher. I'm not sure it's for me, but thank you." I had a good friend that worked there. He persisted. He said, "Look, just come and try it one time. Just try one class and see how you ... " If you don't want to ever come back, that'll be fine." I said, "Okay. I'll come and teach one class and see how it goes." That was in 1998. A couple of weeks ago I completed my 23rd year of teaching there. I did like it. It did go quite well. Gosh, I've had a terrific relationship with them, with GRS and their training center for a couple of decades now.
Courtney Gray:
Amazing. How's that been during COVID though? Have you been doing it from home or virtual?
Sam Alfano:
I don't do virtual. I've had a lot of requests for that. I guess at some point I need to investigate the possibilities of that. During COVID, for a long time, no, we did not teach any classes at GRS, obviously. I had a couple or three private students that came in. I was nervous and they were nervous, traveling and being in the same room with somebody. This was pre-vaccination time. Everybody was really nervous and scared. I had a few. I put the time to good use and caught up on engraving projects and four video projects that I had been working on for a long time, that I was able to complete in place of teaching. It worked out okay.
Courtney Gray:
You have a lot of videos out there now.
Sam Alfano:
Yeah, quite a few. Beginner to expert. I try to have something for everybody. Hammer and chisel and pneumatic systems and whatever.
Courtney Gray:
Tell us about the Engravers Café and how that came to life.
Sam Alfano:
That was in 2006. Prior to that, I still have the site, called igraver.com. I-G-R-A-V-E-R-dot com. It was a tutorial site. You could go there and read the tutorials on how to do engraving applications. I thought it would be nice to have an online forum, a web forum. Long story short, I bought the software and set up the Engravers Café forum. I thought my goal was to have 100 members. I said, "If I can get 100 engravers around the world that will come and meet in this one place and exchange information and post photos, mission accomplished. That's beyond my wildest dreams." 13,000 members later, it's been a huge success. It's been around for a long time, since '06. We had a great group of people there from all walks of life, from all parts of the world, some real world masters and lots of beginners too. It's a nice place for everybody. I encourage anybody interested in hand engraving to seek out the Engravers Café. It's free. To see the photos, to click on the photos, you need to be a member, but it's free to register, so register. You can be a lurker or you can participate and ask questions and post pictures of your work and whatever you like.
Courtney Gray:
You're the chief administrator still for this?
Sam Alfano:
I am. I'm still the benevolent dictator.
Courtney Gray:
I saw that.
Sam Alfano:
That's how I refer to myself.
Courtney Gray:
That's hilarious. I love these communities that are out there for us, because it can take out a lot of that guesswork. We're working at the bench alone a lot. It's nice to have somewhere to communicate from wherever you are.
Sam Alfano:
That's true. That's a really good point, because we work in solitude. Back in the day, I remember, my gosh, there were no pictures to look at. I would go to the magazine store once a month and look for magazines that had pictures of anything that was hand engraved, guns, knives usually, which would be on the magazines rack. If they had one good picture of something that was engraved, I would buy that magazine and tear that picture out and put it in my file. I had this little folder of engraving pictures, and that was really all that there was. There was no one to talk to. Like I said, very few people were willing to share. When I started the café, things were starting to change. The Firearms Engravers Guild of America, FEGA, had come into existence. Their mission is to spread the information of hand engraving and to share information. We had FEGA going strong. I wanted a place where people could go and meet other people, like you said, since we work in solitude, where they could hook up with other engravers and become friends and share information easily. That's really how it came about.
Courtney Gray:
It's perfect I think to have these new forums. Everything's gone online in such a dramatic way, especially lately. I think it's so nice to have these little places to meet up. What in your eyes is the biggest success of the Engravers Café? Are there any stories of just growth or something that came to light that just reminded you that you're doing the right thing with this community?
Sam Alfano:
I've talked to an awful lot of engravers who learned to engrave via the Engravers Café forum. They came there not knowing anything, or knowing very little, seeking information. We try to keep things categorized. We have a section on sharpening, a section on drawing, and so on and so forth. They were able to go there and find these bits and pieces to help put the puzzle together so that they could learn to engrave. The most gratifying thing is to hear those stories from people that learned, that didn't have access to teachers or classes or anything of the sort. They've learned how to become an engraver. That just makes me feel like a million dollars that that's happened.
Courtney Gray:
That can be a takeaway just from visiting this community that you put together. That's exciting. Yay. Good for you. Like we said, why hold back these techniques and expertise? I think it's lovely to pass it down and to have that desire to do so. It's important for the industry. Let's talk a little bit more about your work and what type of customers are finding you. Are you still doing commission work?
Sam Alfano:
I do. I'm getting picky and choosy about what I do. Nowadays I don't take on everything that comes through the door. I'm able to be selective about the jobs I take. I mainly do jewelry engraving nowadays. I'm not doing gun engraving anymore. My average customer is somebody who gets on the web and they are searching for hand engraving for a custom knife, but mostly jewelry. I've got pretty good search engine rankings, because I've been around a long time. A young couple is searching for engraved ring sets, and they end up on my site. They might like my work. If they do, they'll send me an email. Then it often turns into a job. That's really how it works for me. It's mostly jewelry engraving, signet rings, wedding bands, and things like that, watches occasionally.
Courtney Gray:
I would imagine watches would be a big thing for engraving.
Sam Alfano:
It is. There's a huge demand for fine engraved watches. Now the ones that I have done, I haven't done any of the jobs like some of the other engravers have done. They're just knocking it completely out of the park with some crazy, fantastic watch jobs. Joanne Ryall in the UK and Jeff Parke in the United States. There's a couple right there that ... Rick Simmons. These guys, they're killing it. They're great engravers. The ones that I've done recently have been watch backs and initials and smaller jobs like that. Like I said, I'm not taking on some of the bigger jobs. I've got other things that I like to do that take up my time. With teaching it's hard to take on a job that requires weeks of your time. Watches are big, but jewelry engraving, I can make more money per hour at that than anything. That is the highest paying type of engraving I have ever done. I don't get to do the Sistine Chapel on a wedding band set, like you might see on a beautiful deeper leaf gold inlaid in gold, overlaid firearm. Those are great for the reputation. As far as money per hour, jewelry engraving, that's been it for me.
Courtney Gray:
You're answering my next question I was going to ask. You're so intuitive, Sam. I was going to ask you, what's the breadwinner in particular in this field.
Sam Alfano:
Rings. Rings. I can sum it up to one word. Rings. That's where I make my money.
Courtney Gray:
Interesting. Interesting.
Sam Alfano:
In Europe, I don't think, they don't go for engraved rings like they do in America. I talk to engravers over there, and they go, "Oh, we're really happy that you're killing it over there engraving rings, but we don't have the demand here. We're working on other things." In the States it's still very popular.
Courtney Gray:
Is it your favorite thing to do or could you pick, because you have so many irons in the fire, or I guess from the whole entirety of your career and as a engraver, is there a favorite piece to that?
Sam Alfano:
I don't know, I like signet rings. Signet rings are pretty hard to beat, because you've got a nice top that you can put a coat of arms on or leaf initials or something complicated, and then you got the sides that you can decorate with scroll work or symbols, masonic symbols or whatever the customer wants. The signet ring has always been a favorite of mine.
Courtney Gray:
Tell me about hobo nickels.
Sam Alfano:
Oh boy, hobo nickels, my gosh. I stumbled on hobo nickels accidentally. I was on eBay and I was searching for engraving tools. I see this coin that's engraved, and I click on it. I can tell right away that it is a coin or was a coin. The guy that is selling it, in his description he says, "I make my own engraving tools out of concrete nails." He had taken this Indian head nickel, this buffalo nickel, and he changed the Indian's portrait to a bearded hobo wearing a derby. His name was Arthur Hutchinson, the engraver. I thought, "My gosh, this guy's making gravers out of concrete nails, and he's doing a pretty darn good job of cutting."
Sam Alfano:
I messaged him and I introduced myself. I said, "I'm a hand engraver." He was in Mississippi. I'm in Louisiana. We're almost neighbors. I said, "Would you like to have a couple of real gravers?" I said, "I'll be happy to send you some." He said, "Oh, I would love that very much." He said, "I've just been making my own. I don't really know how to sharpen. I don't know anything." I sent him a little care package with some gravers and some instructions on how to sharpen and so on. We became friends. He educated me on the hobo nickels. He sent me a care package in return, some copies from Hobo Nickel Society. I was off and running. I said, "I've got to try a hobo nickel myself."
Sam Alfano:
For those out there listening to this that don't know what we're talking about, back in the day, supposedly around the Great Depression, hobos would take an Indian head nickel and they would carve or engrave the Indian's face and change it into a bearded hobo wearing a derby. This was a unique American folk art. These coins were traded for food maybe, a place to stay, or transportation or maybe sold. We don't really know a whole lot about the hobo nickels and where they were created. The story goes that they were created by hobos down at the railroad tracks. I've seen a lot of them. I'm looking at them. I'm seeing evidence of liners and beating tools and mill grain and things like that. I'm going, "I don't know, that looks to me like it was made on a jewelers bench, maybe not necessarily down by the railroad tracks." Anyway, that's the story of the hobo nickel.
Sam Alfano:
Now moving ahead to modern times, there have been several great engravers who have taken this hobo nickel and just run with it and created just master works, incredible designs. We've gone from just simple bearded hobo to different themes and with gold inlay and so on and so forth. That's a quick description of the hobo nickel. If anybody's interested, they should Google that. You can see lots of pictures of some beautiful engraved coins. Some of them go for thousands of dollars. They used to be, hobo nickels, on eBay they were about $50 apiece, unless they were one of the originals. The original old ones, they might go for a couple of hundred. Some of the modern ones done by the better contemporary engravers go for thousands of dollars.
Courtney Gray:
So interesting. I just did Google that. There's a lot of images here. I'm going to have to look into this later.
Sam Alfano:
It's cool.
Courtney Gray:
You got some beautiful ones on your website too.
Sam Alfano:
It's the most fun I've ever had engraving. I'll tell you that. You ask me what I like, a good ole hobo nickel. You can't really make a mistake on it. If you make his nose a little bit too long or too short, it doesn't really matter. We've got a lot of flexibility in design. They just make you laugh. They make you smile. They make you happy. They make you a few bucks in the process. They're just fun to do. You can buy a hobo nickel with a clear date, clear date meaning you can read the date. You can buy one from a coin shop or on eBay and chuck it in your vice and draw on a cool design and get after it and have fun in the process. I highly recommend doing them.
Courtney Gray:
Hobo nickels, it's the next video for you.
Sam Alfano:
I've thought about that. Maybe one day. Who knows?
Courtney Gray:
You never know.
Sam Alfano:
I haven't ruled it out.
Courtney Gray:
I get the feeling that you're a bit of a historian. Am I right in that?
Sam Alfano:
I don't know. I'm not a history buff per se. I like history. I like old things. I don't know. Depends on how you define historian.
Courtney Gray:
History buff was what I was thinking. Little bit. Just the design feel that I get from your work.
Sam Alfano:
As far as that goes, sure, of course. Always got my cellphone in hand when I'm in an antique store or around buildings that have beautiful carved marble. I'm taking pictures of designs that I like, scroll work that I see that might be on a piece of antique furniture. I'll record it and then review it later and draw it into my sketchbook. As far as the artwork goes, sure, I guess I'm a historian in that respect.
Courtney Gray:
Design. In design. I think we're always looking for inspirations. All right, you ready for ... I specially wrote a rapid fire for you, Sam, because I know that you can handle this. No pressure, but I want you to answer really fast. Don't think.
Sam Alfano:
If I don't answer, it's because I don't want to.
Courtney Gray:
That was a perfectly fine answer.
Sam Alfano:
I don't think that fast, so don't expect fast responses.
Courtney Gray:
[crosstalk 00:45:12].
Sam Alfano:
I'm a slow thinker.
Courtney Gray:
Top of your head. Are you ready for this?
Sam Alfano:
No, but go ahead.
Courtney Gray:
Take a sip of water. Big sip of water. You need it. Let's see here.
Sam Alfano:
How many of these questions are there?
Courtney Gray:
You'll see. You'll see. You'll see.
Sam Alfano:
All right then. All right. Go ahead.
Courtney Gray:
Under 10.
Sam Alfano:
All right.
Courtney Gray:
Ready? Favorite food?
Sam Alfano:
Mexican.
Courtney Gray:
Favorite color?
Sam Alfano:
Blue.
Courtney Gray:
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Sam Alfano:
Oh jeez. A banjo player?
Courtney Gray:
You're a dang good banjo player. We got to get some of your music on here.
Sam Alfano:
My son came to me one time, he said, "Dad, when I grow up I'd like to be a banjo player." I said, "Son, you can't have it both ways." Sorry about that. Go ahead.
Courtney Gray:
No, that's good. Favorite spot in your house?
Sam Alfano:
Living room.
Courtney Gray:
Couch?
Sam Alfano:
Yeah. That's where my wife and I sit in the evening with our parrot and our bunny and our dog.
Courtney Gray:
Oh my.
Sam Alfano:
I draw. That's our evening. I don't know, but then my studio too. I'm a hobby watchmaker. My happy place is at my watch bench, fiddling around with watches, and in my studio is obviously one of my favorite places. You said in my house. I'm assuming you don't mean my studio.
Courtney Gray:
Living room is a perfect answer I love. I didn't know you had a bunny.
Sam Alfano:
I don't. My wife has a bunny. The bunny's name is Bunny.
Courtney Gray:
That's a perfect name.
Sam Alfano:
She tried to pick a name. We went over names. We looked down names lists. I would read them off, and she'd go, "No. No. No. No." Finally time went on, finally she said, "We're just going to call bunny Bunny." We have Bunny.
Courtney Gray:
We almost named my second son Happy Smiley Baby, because we just couldn't name him. My oldest said, "Happy Smiley Baby is the perfect name." He ended up with Tristan, so we got there, but he was going to be Happy Smiley Baby. I love that. Favorite spot in your house is the living room with the animals and your lovely wife. One place that you would like to visit currently?
Sam Alfano:
Oh gosh. I'd like to go to St. Petersburg, Russia. There's so much great artwork there. I'd like to go there. One day I will. It's on my bucket list. I love Italy. I guess this isn't really rapid fire is it anymore. Italy is our favorite destination for many reasons, the food, the people, the wine, the architecture, the art, and the ornament. I would like to go to St. Petersburg. That's a place I'd like to go. If you asked my wife she would say the beaches in the Dominican Republic.
Courtney Gray:
I'm with her.
Sam Alfano:
Me, I can stand and stare at a cathedral for an hour in a total trance until she has to drag me away, looking at the artwork.
Courtney Gray:
The detail of the artwork. I can imagine, Sam.
Sam Alfano:
I'm such a nerd with that stuff.
Courtney Gray:
You work under a microscope a lot. You're looking at things in a very detailed way I would imagine.
Sam Alfano:
I guess so.
Courtney Gray:
Let's see. If you were a superhero, what would that look like? This one's especially for you.
Sam Alfano:
I don't know. A superhero, I have no idea. I can't ever picture myself as being a superhero. I guess if I did, I would be nine feet tall and I'd have huge muscles and a cape. That's the best I got. I'm sorry.
Courtney Gray:
That's perfect. That's the whole point.
Sam Alfano:
I would fly around and do super things.
Courtney Gray:
What super?
Sam Alfano:
Fight evil, what superheros do. They're heroes, so they slay evil. That's what I would do. Everybody would love me because I'm a superhero.
Courtney Gray:
You're nine feet tall.
Sam Alfano:
I'm nine feet tall.
Courtney Gray:
With big muscles.
Sam Alfano:
With huge muscles, and a really tight shirt, showing off my biceps.
Courtney Gray:
Scroll work on the cape.
Sam Alfano:
Scroll work on the cape.
Courtney Gray:
I'm getting a visual here. This might be some sort of contest that we put out to the community. Let's get Sam in his superhero attire. I love it. That's a new one I just threw in just for you, Sam.
Sam Alfano:
All right.
Courtney Gray:
I'm going to give you two more. If you could be a motorized vehicle, what would you be?
Sam Alfano:
Gosh. A Jeep. A Jeep.
Courtney Gray:
A Jeep?
Sam Alfano:
Because a Jeep goes anywhere. You can go off the trail. You can go on the streets or on the interstate. You can go wherever you want to go in a Jeep. Jeep would be my choice.
Courtney Gray:
I like that. I used to ride around in a friend's Jeep and jump up on curbs. He could take over medians. It felt dangerous, but he knew what he was doing I think. Do you drive a Jeep now?
Sam Alfano:
No, I don't. I had one when I was a kid, but I do not know. I have just a Ford F-150 pickup.
Courtney Gray:
Have you ever had a piece of work poorly received or returned?
Sam Alfano:
Yeah. I've spelled things wrong and had to get it returned.
Courtney Gray:
Oh man. That's got to be the worst, for engraving. There's no fixing that.
Sam Alfano:
I have a pretty good record as far as customer satisfaction goes. Knock on wood. They've all liked what I've done. The only one that I can think of that was really poorly received was a lady would send me these little pendants, these little charms I should say, that go on her charm bracelet. She would have her grandchildren's name engraved in script and their birthdate below them. It's a little elliptical shape charm made out of flat gold sheet. It has a little bail at the top so it hangs on the bracelet. I engraved, gosh, I don't know, a bunch of these things for this lady over the years. The last one I did, apparently I engraved it upside down. She said, "All the other ones you engraved, the name starts at the top and goes down. On this one, the name starts at the bottom and goes up." I wasn't even aware of how I did it or how I had done the other ones. She says, "I really need to get this replaced." I said, "I totally understand. I get it. No problem." I had to make her a new one. That one wasn't well received. Aside from that I've got a pretty good track record. I've never had anybody say, "I really don't like what you did." I've made spelling errors. I've made screw-ups just like every engraver has. Part of being in this business is you got to learn how to fix it.
Courtney Gray:
Yep, and make it right with your customer and move forward.
Sam Alfano:
That's it. That's it. I still have that charm that I engraved upside down. It's in the scrap box.
Courtney Gray:
For backwards day. It was backwards day. Your favorite hobby I think is probably music, right?
Sam Alfano:
Not anymore. Not so much now.
Courtney Gray:
I heard Abigail is a really great singer and she was in a band.
Sam Alfano:
She is a great singer. She's no longer playing in a band. She's got a store in town. She's got Tallulah's Vintage Market. They sell antiques and gifts and things like that. That keeps her real busy. That's her current passion is working in her store.
Courtney Gray:
That's amazing.
Sam Alfano:
I played music professionally for nine years. I've been a banjo player since 1973 I guess, long time. I'm terribly hard of hearing. I wear hearing aids now. My hearing is shot. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. It makes it difficult for me to go to jam sessions like I used to go. I don't play music so much anymore. Once in a while I'll dust off the banjo and play it in the living room. As far as hobbies go I love photography and I like watchmaking. We've got a lot of interests, Abby and I.
Courtney Gray:
I heard you do sports photography.
Sam Alfano:
It's funny. Yeah, if it's the grandkids.
Courtney Gray:
Oh, and that Abigail is a really good tennis player and she even played on a boys baseball team back in the day.
Sam Alfano:
Yeah. You're looking at her Facebook page I guess. What's funny about the sports photographer thing is I've been involved in photography I guess since I was a kid. My dad had a darkroom when I was a kid and he taught me very young how to be a photographer. I'm a nerd. I'm an art nerd. I don't really watch sports. I don't follow sports. I have no interest in sports. I'm a sports photographer when the grandkids play baseball. I get to go out with my camera and photograph them. I love every second of it. I played a little sandlot ball when I was a kid, so I know what's going on. That's my sports photographer story. That's how I came to be a sports photographer.
Courtney Gray:
Tell us a little bit about your parrot, Mango.
Sam Alfano:
I always wanted a parrot, an African gray parrot, because they're so intelligent. They speak so clearly. I've just been fascinated with them forever. I always had the kind of job where it just wasn't practical to have one, because I traveled so much. For years I traveled around the world doing trade shows and things like this, demonstrating engraving. It just wasn't in the cards to have a parrot. When that settled down and I wasn't traveling so much, I decided it was time to get the parrot of my dreams. I bought Mango from a breeder. She was just a baby. Abigail and I have raised her to this beautiful, full-grown, chatty, funny, hilariously funny, smart bird. She's just part of the family now. She's not in my studio with me right now. Normally she lives in here. She makes so much racket. She's so chatty. You did specify that you wanted me to be in a quiet room.
Courtney Gray:
I didn't say no parrots.
Sam Alfano:
You didn't say that. I figured it would probably be okay and you wouldn't object to her.
Courtney Gray:
I'd love to meet her at some point.
Sam Alfano:
She's awesome. She's incredibly smart. She's got a huge vocabulary. We laugh at this bird every day, seven days a week. She cracks us up.
Courtney Gray:
That's interesting. I did hear that Mango loves Abigail the most.
Sam Alfano:
You didn't have to bring that up.
Courtney Gray:
Abigail sounds so interesting, Sam. How would you feel if I could interview her instead of you? I'm serious. Go get her. Is she there?
Sam Alfano:
She's here.
Courtney Gray:
I heard you locked her out actually.
Sam Alfano:
If word gets out that she's part of this interview, then what's going to happen is people are going to fast-forward through me to get to her. I'll be happy to. Do you want me to go get her?
Courtney Gray:
Yeah, go get her. Go get her. Let's bring her in.
Sam Alfano:
Hold on.
Courtney Gray:
Do you have a minute? Are you cool with chatting?
Abigail:
Yeah, I'm good.
Courtney Gray:
How's Mango?
Abigail:
Mango is great.
Courtney Gray:
You all are a couple of goofballs, Abigail. I was looking you all up. I always watch your posts, because you make me laugh all the time. It's the whole point. Guys, Abigail and Sam can be found on Facebook and maybe Insta now. I don't know if you all are on Instagram.
Abigail:
I think we're too old for Instagram.
Courtney Gray:
I think I am too actually. Eating a jar of mayonnaise and pink wafers, which I hope that was yogurt.
Abigail:
Maybe.
Courtney Gray:
Performing some pretty cool dance moves actually. Sam's got some good dance moves.
Abigail:
Sam's got some good moves.
Courtney Gray:
I have to ask, do you just have too much time on your hands?
Abigail:
I don't know. We both have so many hobbies. We seem to stay busy from sun-up to sundown, but there's always time to be goofy. That's priority around here.
Courtney Gray:
I agree.
Abigail:
We always try to one-up the other one.
Courtney Gray:
You're running a store now, is that right?
Abigail:
I am. I have a store. It's called Tallulah's Vintage Market. I sell antiques and cool gifts and stuff I make. I have two partners that are in it with me. It's a blast.
Courtney Gray:
Tell me some more fun stories about you guys.
Abigail:
Oh my gosh.
Courtney Gray:
We need to lighten up everybody.
Abigail:
Some fun stories about ... Sam is just, I don't know, I think people, I know I did, when I first met him I thought he was serious, but that only lasted about five minutes. He's just a goofball, just a total, total goofball. I think he looks serious, but he's not. Probably the first two years we were married, because when he says something funny it's usually with a very straight face, so he would say something totally inappropriate at the most inopportune times. I would get embarrassed. I would always say, "He's just kidding. He's joking. He's just kidding." Finally after a couple of years I'm like, "If they don't know he's kidding, I'm tired."
Courtney Gray:
He is a really great guy, very humbled. I love his devotion to teaching and to sharing this craft.
Abigail:
He's very dedicated. I think people don't see all of the things that he does behind the scenes. People write him from all over the world asking questions. He doesn't know who they are. They've just seen him online or whatever. He gives out so much information. If he has extra tools or extra books or extra videos, he'll send them. It's usually places that they don't have access to these kind of things. He's very generous. Very generous.
Courtney Gray:
Nice guy you married there.
Abigail:
He's pretty nice most of the time.
Courtney Gray:
Oh my gosh. I'm so glad to have you pop on, and to play a little prank with you as well.
Abigail:
He had no idea. I was actually listening through the door, because he did lock me out, because he was afraid I would come in and do something.
Courtney Gray:
Like this?
Abigail:
I think what the speech was before was to not ... Oh gosh. We're trying to teach our parrot to say weird things, and he asked me not to come in doing those quotes. They're not bad things, they're just strange things. I wasn't supposed to do that. No yodeling, no opera singing.
Courtney Gray:
Now I'm disappointed.
Abigail:
I could do that for you. He actually locked the door. I sat outside the door and I found a stethoscope.
Courtney Gray:
No way.
Abigail:
I was listening until my ears got sore.
Courtney Gray:
That's hilarious. Abigail and I have been behind the scenes messing with Sam just a little bit. He probably thought this was going to be a serious interview.
Abigail:
He did. He did.
Courtney Gray:
It was. We got a lot of great technique talk in.
Abigail:
Good.
Courtney Gray:
I said, "We're going to turn the tables on Mr. Sam," because I can tell he's a prankster.
Abigail:
Oh my gosh. He is.
Courtney Gray:
Abigail, let's bring Sam back in, so we can-
Abigail:
Let me go find him.
Courtney Gray:
... let him share a little more. Thank you. It's so good to meet you face to face.
Abigail:
Nice to meet you too.
Courtney Gray:
Two-dimensional.
Abigail:
Let me go get him.
Courtney Gray:
All right, love. Take care.
Abigail:
All righty.
Sam Alfano:
How'd she do?
Courtney Gray:
She's a fabulous woman. You all are lucky.
Sam Alfano:
She is. I tell you what.
Courtney Gray:
Abigail is continuing to pop up behind Sam. I love it.
Sam Alfano:
She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can tell you that.
Courtney Gray:
Oh my gosh. She said the same about you.
Sam Alfano:
Did she?
Courtney Gray:
We were messing with you just a little bit there, Sam, because we've been messaging since last night.
Sam Alfano:
Get out of here. Behind my back.
Courtney Gray:
Behind your back.
Sam Alfano:
Oh my gosh.
Courtney Gray:
She said, "It's time we turn the tables on Sam and give him a little joke."
Sam Alfano:
You guys. That's funny. All right. I deserve it.
Courtney Gray:
I was surprised you didn't catch on. She's like, "Make sure you mention this and that."
Sam Alfano:
I did not have a clue.
Courtney Gray:
You just figured I was a really good researcher, huh?
Sam Alfano:
Totally blindsided by that. I thought you were.
Courtney Gray:
I've always wanted to hang out with you guys. You crack me up when I need it. Thanks for taking the time. I asked Abigail, so do you guys just have too much time on your hands? Because I thought engraving was a time-expensive business or technique?
Sam Alfano:
Yeah, it is, but we make time for frivolity. We try to stay happy. We got too much seriousness in the world right now, too much grief. We just try to stay real light here as far as sense of humor. We make each other laugh all day. We certainly don't take ourselves very seriously. That much I can tell you.
Courtney Gray:
Sam, I don't want to keep you all day, but I could talk to you all day. I know these guys would love to hear more from you. Maybe part two is dance moves.
Sam Alfano:
I don't know. We probably don't have anybody left out there. They probably have already bored to tears and they've already left. Thank you, Courtney. It's an honor to be invited to your interview. I really appreciate it very much.
Courtney Gray:
I'm just glad you said yes and that you're willing to have a little fun with us. Is there anything else you want to share with the community or maybe those beginners we were speaking to earlier? Feel free to share openly.
Sam Alfano:
I would say if you're interested in learning hand engraving, join my Facebook group. It's the Engraving Bench Facebook group. We've got another, in addition to the Engravers Café, which has about 14,000 members, I think we've got about the same number on my Facebook group, Engraving Bench. It's a real active group. You can go there and see what other people are doing, post questions. It's a great place to start. Engraverscafe.com web forum is good. I also teach classes at GRS. If somebody wants to learn to hand engrave, the fastest way is to take a class or find somebody locally who can tutor you or help you get started. To learn on your own like I did, I've been a professional engraver since 1980, but I actually started about 10 or 12 years before that. I didn't call myself an engraver until 1980. There was about 10 years that went by, 10 or more years that went by where I just stumbled and floundered around trying to figure things out. It doesn't have to be that way now. You can take a five-day class and get up to speed very quickly.
Sam Alfano:
For a beginner, take a class, find somebody locally, join the social media groups. On Instagram I'm Master Engraver, Master underscore Engraver. Find me on Instagram, and other engravers as well. I have training videos available for those that want to learn. You can go to my website, masterengraver.com, and you'll find links to instructional videos, my book of designs, and so on and so forth. That would be the best way to start.
Courtney Gray:
Yes. You guys, like Sam said earlier too, don't let expense or fear keep you from trying something new and diving in.
Sam Alfano:
There's never been a better time. Like I said, we are in a hand engraving renaissance right now. You mentioned something earlier about jewelers. A number of people, the hand engraving, for jewelers in particular, hand engraving is like the final frontier. They can cast. They can carve wax. They can fabricate. They can repair. They can set stones. They can do all these wonderful processes, except engrave. 50% of my students or more are jewelers that want to add hand engraving skills to their repertoire. There's no reason not to. There's never been a better time to learn. There are so many educational opportunities right now. We've got the classes and the videos and the social media. Now's the time. There's never been a better time, so don't delay. If you're interested in it, jump in with both feet. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars. You can do it inexpensively with some simple hand tools if you prefer.
Courtney Gray:
It's going to take those practice hours, right?
Sam Alfano:
Oh yeah.
Courtney Gray:
Start soon.
Sam Alfano:
I tell students, this is like learning a musical instrument. I can give you the sheet music in five days and you have to go home and practice and learn how to play the song. The same with hand engraving. I'm giving you the sheet music. You're going to go home and you're going to practice everything that you've learned as far as tool sharpening and how to cut. That's the fun part. It's not always the destination, but it's the journey. I never looked at practicing as a form of punishment. I love to sit at my bench and engrave. I like to try new things and learn new things, even after 40-plus years of doing it. I'm still like a sponge. You show me something, a new way to engrave something, boy, I'm all over it. I want to know.
Courtney Gray:
That curiosity is still moving you forward.
Sam Alfano:
It's still alive and well, absolutely.
Courtney Gray:
Otherwise we'd get stagnant and bored. You got to stay curious. On that note, you guys, stay curious and dive in, swim hard, try all the things that you want to try. I love that. Don't wait. The best time is now. We're home still, so grab the engravers, learn how to sharpen correctly. Sam's got tons of resources for you guys. Thank you so much, Sam and Abigail and Mango and Bunny.
Sam Alfano:
Thank you, Courtney. I'm honored to be a part of this. Thank you very much.
Courtney Gray:
I hope you had fun like I did. I appreciate it, Sam.
Sam Alfano:
I sure did, yeah. It was a blast.
Courtney Gray:
All right. You guys take care.
Courtney Gray:
Thanks for tuning in. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of For the Love of Jewelers. Stay tuned for the next episode by subscribing through Spotify and iTunes, or by searching “podcast” at riogrande.com. I encourage you to rate us, write a review and share it with your friends and colleagues. I am your host Courtney Gray. My hope is that you continue to find ways to stay inspired until we connect again. Onward and upward.