← See the personalized brass sundial compass we make
We Make Them Ourselves
There is a lot of brass on the internet that has never been touched by the person selling it.
We are a working metal workshop — the lathes, the polishing wheels and the fiber laser that cuts the engraving are ours, in one building, operated by people whose names we know. We have been making and engraving things in brass and steel for years before we sold a single compass online.
That is the whole difference, and it shows up in unglamorous ways. We can tell you what happens to the patina after two years, because we have compasses from two years ago sitting on the bench. We can tell you whether your logo will engrave cleanly, because we will put it under the laser and look. When something goes wrong, and occasionally it does, you are talking to the people who made it rather than to someone forwarding an email.
What we actually do
Brass arrives raw. It is cast, turned, filed, and hand-polished, which is dull work and the reason cheap compasses feel wrong in the hand. The antique finish is a chemical patina, applied and then sealed — not a spray coating that chips at the rim within a year.
The engraving is cut into the metal with a fiber laser. Not printed, not lacquer-transferred. Cut. You can feel it with a fingernail, and it will still be legible when the person who received it is gone and someone else is holding it.
Why compasses
Because of what people write on them.
We have engraved the coordinates of a hospital car park where somebody proposed. The date of a crossing. A line from a eulogy. "Come home" — just that, twice, for two different families in the same month, and we thought about both of them for a while afterwards.
Most of what a workshop makes is anonymous. This is not. We read every line before we cut it, and it is a strange privilege.
Where we are
Our compasses are made in our own workshop and fulfilled from our warehouse in Marlton, New Jersey, USA. We ship worldwide — and for US customers there is no customs to clear, because the parcel is delivered domestically.
Talk to us
Support@TheEngraversShop.com — a person reads it, and replies within one business day.