How many have had their initials put on the initial plate on the stock? Will this lower any possible resale value, or should I just leave it blank?

It does lower the value "unless you are famous" & can prove it. I'd leave it blank. Ken

I have had my initials engraved on several guns and I frankly "don't give a damn" whether the next owner likes it or not. My amazement is that so few guns have anything on these plates, even after 100 years and God knows how many owners. I surely don't disagree with Ken's answer or his advice, either. I just will do with my guns as I wish, assuming I plan to keep them for a reasonable length of time.

The blank spot on my RBL's trigger guard fit my initials just right. The only bad thing was that my jewelers computerized system did a better engraving job than Galazan's.
bill

During the Colonial Period and up into the early 1800's, when many pieces were custom made for an individual, it wasn't all that rare to have the owners initials-or even a name-engraved on the piece. Usually it was on a small silver scutchion on top of the wrist just behind the tang. Two of my contemporary fowling pieces will have my initials engraved on a wrist scutcion if I'll just get around to having an engraver do it!

Dymo tape works well on autoloaders and such.

jack

I can't bring myself to do it, Steve. I'd rather pass them along untouched. Imagine an 1889 hammer 16ga Parker 0 frame with my initials on it. I'd think of it as vanity. If I was a gunner renowned for miles around, I might feel differently passing it along to family. The kids, grandchildren, nieces nephews have seen me miss too many times!

I thought only skeet Krieghoff's traditionally used Dymo labels.

My 870 TB has had the same red Dymo label on the forend since 1965. Adds a touch of class, don't ya think?

Chuck,
Our waste disposal men won't take Krieghoffs unles they are packaged correctly and have the correct HazMat paperwork.
Initialling the oval is a very personal taste, if it's yours and a keeper do it, it gives a message of pride.If your a person who can't settle don't engrave it because it will be on its way soon and you will have to take a small hit, unless of course your Eisenhower, Truman, Shwartzkoff, Cluny etc.,

Along the rib on my Custom Grade Model 21 is "Custom Made for Fred Remington". Would I rather it not be on there? Of course. Did it lower the resale value of the gun? You figure- I paid $5000.00 for it about five years ago. (Anybody know the guy?)......... I have a 1960s Weatherby Mark V rifle in .300 Weatherby Magnum with a Weatherby 9X variable scope. It was custom made for my uncle. It has 24 mother of pearl inlets, the stock is checkered with cut leaves on the entire stock. And it has his name under the forend on a gold plaque. My aunt gave it to me after he died in 1975. Do I mind if it has his name on it? Nope. I will give it to my son to give to his. So, I guess it depends on the cicumstances. If you want to keep the gun and don't ever plan to sell it, I guess it doesn't matter. But if you get one to resell and make a profit, it probably does lower the value. Fortunately though, my son and I have the same initials.

A word of warning.

An old boy I used to soot with once generously offered to get my cartridge bags initialled for me. " They are such nice bags, you should have your initiails on them Dig" he said over lunch in the pub.

So, I carefully wrote my initials: E.D.F.H on a piece of paper. Andy made a note on the paper to remind him what they were for and took the bags away.

Two weeks later he proudly presented me with my three bags (all Brady combined value £700) with the initials D.I.G.S in deep bold embossing - a nice job.

"But Andy", I said "those are not my initials!"
"Yes they are - look" - he took out the paper and on the reverse of where I had written EDFH, was Any's note in block letters: DIGS INITIALS FOR BAGS.

At least is wasn't my Purdey! Everytime I see them I think of Andy and laugh.

I am always amazed at the number of guns I see with those ovals left blank.

If it was a gun I bought with every intention of it being a keeper for life then I would absolutely get it engraved. If it's something I wasn't sure about or bought only to turn a profit then I would absolutely NOT get it engraved.

How difficult is it to have these ovals replaced? Is that an option? Obviously personalization on other parts of the gun I would probably not want to jack around with, but could you not have a new blank brass oval professionally installed?

We once had a M-21 20 gauge Skeet come thru the shop that the previous had gone one better than engraving initals on the oval.
This moron, apparently worried about theft and forgetting that the gun was already identified with a serial number, engraved his SSAN on the barrels.

I'd tell people it belonged to Frederic Remington, the famous Western artist. Never mind that he died in 1909.

I had my gun MIA in a shooting lodge for a whole day, because some guy didn't notice it wasn't his gun...
It was a Beretta SPIII with a blank oval, and I'll get it engraved as soon as possible.
I think all guns and cases that are mixed with others in a lodge or someplace else should have some kind of ID.
The practical point of having the oval engraved was not having the Earls Purdey's ending up in the wrong place, and although not a Purdey I missed not having my gun for the day.

Best
HM

Does anyone believe that engraving will reduce the value any more than having chokes bored out on a gun marked Mod/Full?

Opening M/F chokes doesn't reduce the value....it just narrows the market.

Just as a gun with a left handed stock doesn't sell for less than its right-handed counterpart, but the market is smaller.

Heck, I'd pay a premium if I found one already engraved with MEC

Another thing Steve does not mention in his original post: You don't say if you had the gun made for you. If someone has a gun made to his specs with a space for his name then I would say that it would be silly to have the gun made up that way and not have one's initials put in it. Wouldn't you think?

Dig, that's a dandy---especially your seeing the humour of it.

My buddy and I were cutting some large maples for firewood, big stuff, and with a combined nearly 140 years with axe and chainsaw experience, we got three chainsaws stuck in one tree.

My buddy, now 91, a logger before the Second World War , a river-drive man, was humiliated. I said, Tommy, I find these are things we remember and laugh about the rest of our lives. And we do.

Hey Mike ---- I just happen to have an extra set of MEC initials laying around the shop, ya want me to send them to you ?

Ha!! I like that, Ken.

Post deleted by Steve Lawson

The gun in question is an Ithaca Knickerbocker ca 1926 that I have refurbished. The initial plate is a shield type in what appears to be rose gold. I thought my initials may look good on there if I can find a jeweler or some one that can to the job for me.

Wow!! That sounds neat, Steve. You did so much work on it. Why not? Then again, you could always put JKW on it and let my son use it.

It probably sounds dumb to many of you guys, but who would you recommend to place a few initials? I know for example how beautiful Ken's work is, but, is it the kind of thing one should ask of an artist, or would it be an insult? No kidding, I've got a gun I want forever, and I really want to have my brand on it. But, as inconsequential as it may seem, I would like it done just right. Any opinions would be appreciated.
thanks
Rick

Dymo labels are for Nylon 66's and Tenite stocked J.C. Higgins(es). My Dad's country store was broken into one night and the thieves took, along with all the cigarettes in the store, his Nylon 66. We didn't know about the burglary until a Jawja State Patrolman called the house in the wee hours of the mawnin'. He asked if Daddy's store had been "broke into". Seems the crooks had a tail light out and were pulled over by the "man". They had the .22 lying in their back seat. The patrolman asked to see the rifle and when he looked it over he noticed the Dymo label on the f/end. He asked where they got it and one replied that he'd won it in a poker game. The patrolman, knowing my Dad was not a gambler, arrested them and all the loot was returned (eventually).

Do it, Dymo.

I say go for it.

Don't be affraid to ask...engraving these days is more a pattern tranfer and the ability to run a motorized Graver that a lost art form.

I don't believe the fact that there are initials on the shields in the stocks of my CEO- and DEO-Grade Remington hammerless doubles lowers the market value any. My only problem is they are so fancy I can't figure out what they are?

In most quality guns, this shouldn't even be an issue. Unless very deeply engraved, initials on a good oval or shield can probably be polished right out of it to make it blank again.

My VB 20 has some unknown Yooper's initials on it. If I ever sell it, I'll have to come up with a Pulitzer-quality story for them ("Buy the gun, not the story--Sell the story, not the gun....").

I just use one gold initial. That make people think the gun was owned by royalty, and (maybe) it was! I think you can still buy them from either G&H or Galazans - certainly the best makers offer them. Although I recently did have a stockmaker tell me he had never inlaid initial before. I leave the stock ovals blank even though they can be polished out.