Engraving: how many letters actually fit

3 of my own product pages give 3 different answers to the same question. The Name Disc Charm says each disc can be engraved with a name of up to 7 characters. The Elevator Bar Name Bracelet recommends the name is limited to 8 letters. The Engraved Name/Word Ring says approximately 5 words, or up to 21 characters. Nothing on the site explains why 1 piece holds 7 and another holds 21.

I have made jewellery by hand in London for 22 years. It started on a stall on Portobello Road, and the work has since been sold at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. The engraving is still done in my own workshop.

The surface decides, not the price

A character limit is arithmetic. It has nothing to do with what a piece costs and everything to do with the shape of the metal.

A disc gives you a round field, which wastes space above and below a line of type. Leave a margin so the letters are not falling off the edge and you are down to a name. A bar gives you a narrow strip, with length to play with but almost no height. A ring band gives you a line that runs all the way round the finger and back to where it started, with no corners and no wasted ends. That is why the band takes 21 characters and the disc takes 7. The ring is not more generous. It is just longer.

More letters means smaller letters

A stated limit is not where the words stop fitting. It is where they stop being worth reading.

Push 20 characters onto a surface built for 8 and the letter height has to come down to suit. Small letters fill. They fill with polishing compound in the workshop, then for years with hand cream, soap and the oil from your own skin, and a filled letter reads as a grey smudge rather than a word. The engraving has not worn away. It has silted up.

Count properly before you decide. Spaces are characters and so are full stops. A name and a date together comes to about 19, which is why 21 is a more useful allowance than it sounds and 7 is tighter.

Where the words sit, and what actually wears

The inside of a ring band is the most protected surface anywhere on a piece of jewellery. It touches nothing but skin. The outside of the same band is the least protected, because a hand knocks against door frames, keyboards and worktops all day.

A pendant sits between the 2. Engrave the back and the words are private and sheltered. Engrave the front and they catch the light, and everything else. That is not a reason to avoid the front. It is a reason to cut deeper, and depth is limited by how thick the metal is, which is my problem rather than yours.

The piece that answers the question

The Engraved Name/Word Ring is the clearest example in the shop. It is £115 in solid 0.925 sterling silver, £125 in gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, and £375 in 9kt solid yellow or white gold. It holds up to 21 characters, which is a quote, a pair of names, or a name and a date. Measure the finger before you order: my ring size guide is a strip of paper and 2 minutes.

What I notice is that people worry about the wrong thing. Almost everybody asks whether the engraving will last. Almost nobody asks how many letters they have. The letter count sets how the piece looks for the whole of its life. The depth is mine to get right.

Other ways in

The Name Disc Charm is £35 in sterling silver and £55 in gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, with up to 7 characters and 1 name per disc. People order several and hang them together, which is the honest way to get past 7 characters on a charm bracelet. The rest of the discs, letters and chains sit in Charms and Chains.

The Elevator Bar Name Bracelet is £125 in sterling silver, gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, and takes 8 letters on a bar that can be worn on the wrist or the ankle. It comes in 3 lengths, and my Chain Guide will tell you which to order. If the words matter more than the letters, the Calendar Necklace at £140 in sterling silver, £180 in either vermeil and £550 in 14kt solid gold marks a date instead, and a date never needs counting.

When the words have already gone

Inherited pieces come to me with inscriptions worn to a shadow, usually on a band or a signet ring that has been on a hand since 1960. Whether the words can be cut again depends on how much metal is left, which is what an estimate is for. Second Life Jewellery is my remodelling and resetting service: the stones stay, the gold stays, the story stays, and the shape changes. Send a photograph and I will tell you what is possible. The estimate is free.

The second life is the real one. Anna Lou x.

Everything engraved in my own workshop is in Engraved Necklaces, or message me on WhatsApp and I will tell you what will fit.

Questions I get asked

How many letters can I actually have engraved?

It depends entirely on the piece, and every listing states its own limit. A name disc takes 7 characters, a name bar takes 8, a plain ring band takes 21. Spaces and punctuation count towards the total, so write the inscription out exactly as you want it and count that, not the words. The full range is in Engraved Necklaces.

Will the engraving wear off?

Not in any normal lifetime if it sits inside a ring or on the back of a pendant, because neither surface rubs against anything hard. On the outside of a ring it will soften over decades of daily wear. If you are holding an old piece whose inscription has already faded, that is a question for Second Life Jewellery rather than a lost cause.

Should the words go on the front or the back?

Put them on the front if you want them read and on the back if you want them yours. A date or a set of initials carries well on the front because it reads as pattern from across a room. A sentence almost always belongs on the back, where it can be cut at a readable letter height without having to fit the design round it.