Engraving Guides

Fiber laser vs. CO2 engraving comes down to one sentence: fiber marks metal, CO2 marks organics. Everything else in this article is detail on top of that sentence, but the detail matters when your project is the one on the table.

Shops that run only one machine will sometimes talk you into the wrong process rather than send you elsewhere. We run both, so we don’t have that incentive.

The difference

The two lasers emit different wavelengths, and materials absorb those wavelengths differently. Fiber sits around 1.06 microns, which metal absorbs well. CO2 sits around 10.6 microns, which wood, leather, glass, and acrylic absorb well. Point a CO2 laser at bare steel and very little happens without a marking spray. Point a fiber laser at a cutting board and you get scorch instead of contrast.

	Fiber laser	CO2 laser
Wavelength	~1.06 microns	~10.6 microns
Best on	Steel, aluminum, titanium, brass	Wood, leather, acrylic, glass
Mark types	Anneal, etch, deep engrave	Burn, frosted etch
Weak spot	Raw wood, clear organics	Bare metal

Fiber on metal

Metal absorbs fiber’s wavelength in a way that permits two things CO2 can’t do. Annealing produces a permanent dark mark with zero material removed, which matters for parts that can’t be weakened or given crevices: knife blades, medical items, food-contact pieces. Deep engraving removes metal to a measurable depth, which is what regulatory work demands. The ATF’s firearm marking rules specify a minimum depth of 0.003 inch, and depth like that is a machine setting on fiber, not an aspiration.

Our metal engraving and firearm engraving run on fiber for exactly this reason.

CO2 on organics

Wood develops contrast as the beam caramelizes and chars the grain. Leather darkens sharply. Cast acrylic frosts to a bright white. Glass takes an elegant frosted etch. These are the materials behind our wood, leather, glass, and acrylic work, and CO2 is the right tool for all of them.

Which one you need

You don’t need to know. That’s the shop’s job, and any shop that makes you specify the laser is outsourcing its own expertise to you. Tell us the material and how the item will be used, and we’ll run it on the correct machine with settings matched to the stock.

Not sure what your material even is? That happens more than you’d think, and it’s fine. Request a quote, describe the item, and we’ll sort it out. Reston, VA based, nationwide shipping.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Engraving vs. etching vs. marking: what each one means
• What can be laser engraved? A working guide to materials

Disclaimer: this is general information, not legal advice. Regulations change. Confirm current requirements with the ATF and your approved Form 1 before anyone engraves anything.

The ATF Form 1 engraving requirements trip up more home builders than the paperwork does. When you make an NFA item yourself (a short-barreled rifle, a short-barreled shotgun, a suppressor), the law treats you as the manufacturer, and manufacturers have to mark what they make. Skip the marking or get it wrong and you own a non-compliant item. Get it right and you have a clean, permanent mark that nobody ever asks about again.

The required markings

For a Form 1 build, you engrave your maker information on the receiver, or on the tube for a suppressor:

• Your name, or the trust or entity name if you filed as one
• The city and state where you made it
• A serial number, which you assign if the item doesn’t already have one
• The caliber or gauge, and the model if the item has one, per the Form 1 instructions

If the firearm already carries a factory serial (common with SBR builds on an existing lower), you add your maker information alongside it.

Size and depth minimums

This is where DIY attempts fail. The specs come from 27 CFR 478.92 and 479.102, and they’re measured, not eyeballed: the serial number must be at least 1/16 inch tall and cut to a depth of at least 0.003 inch, and the other required text (name, city, state) must meet the same 1/16 inch height requirement.

0.003 inch doesn’t sound like much. On hardened steel, it is.

A hand engraver or a rotary tool can wander, skip, and cut shallow on receiver-grade alloys, and a mark that looks fine to the eye can still measure under spec, which is the entire problem: nobody checks compliance by eye. We run these marks on a fiber laser because depth becomes a setting instead of a hope. Same input, same result, every time.

Placement

The mark goes on the regulated part itself: the receiver, or the suppressor tube. Not a handguard, not a grip panel, nothing removable. It also needs to stay visible after the thing is assembled, so plan around rails and furniture before committing.

Mistakes we see

1. Engraving before the stamp comes back. Wait for the approved Form 1 and your assigned serial. Patience is cheaper than a second receiver.
2. Fonts that measure small. A stylized font can dip under 1/16 inch at its shortest character even when the “font size” says otherwise. Compliance first, style second.
3. Shallow marks from underpowered tools.
4. Marking a removable part because it was easier to clamp. (We’ve been asked. We say no.)

How we handle Form 1 work

Send us your approved text and we lay out placement, confirm character height at actual size, and engrave to spec on the fiber laser. You get a mark that’s deep enough, tall enough, and permanent. We’re in Reston, Virginia, we’re set up for local drop-off, and we take mail-in work from out of state.

Ready to get your build marked? Request a quote or read more about our firearm engraving services.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Custom engraving in Northern Virginia: how our process works
• Engraving vs. etching vs. marking: what each one means
• Pistol slide engraving: design, legality, and durability

Most personalized goods are printed. The design sits on top of the object, and it leaves the way it arrived: it peels, it fades, it scratches off in a pocket. We started Aion Custom Works because there is a better way to put a name on something, and it has existed for decades in industrial settings without reaching the people buying gifts.

Laser engraving does not add anything to an object. It changes the object. On steel the mark is oxide or removed metal; on wood it is charred grain; on leather it is the hide itself. There is nothing to peel because nothing was applied.

What we make

For individuals, we engrave pieces meant to be kept: keychains, wallet bottle openers, leather luggage tags, wood slice ornaments, cufflink and tie clip sets. Cutting boards, glassware and drinkware come through on custom order. These are objects that end up in a pocket or on a shelf for years, which is the only real test of a personalized gift.

For businesses, we produce branded gifts, awards, signage and recognition pieces, with per-name personalization on bulk runs. An engraved tool someone keeps in a drawer for a decade does more for a brand than a printed item that gets thrown out in a week.

For the firearms community, we do ATF Form 1 maker marking, serial number engraving and pistol slide work on a fiber laser, to the depth and height minimums federal regulations specify. That work is live now, not planned.

Where the standards come from

The shop is run by Anthony Andreatos out of a home-based studio in Reston, Virginia. His background is in building and fabrication, which is where the habits come from: prep the material, run a test pass, check the finished piece by hand rather than by eye. A tolerance is a tolerance. Framing a wall, cutting a line into steel, the number either holds or it does not.

That is also why we proof every design before anything is cut. Engraving has no undo, so you see exactly what will be marked, at actual size, before the laser fires.

How to order

Products in the shop are personalized on the page: type your text, see the layout, order. For anything else, including bulk and corporate work, request a quote and tell us the material, the design and the quantity.

We are in Reston and serve Northern Virginia and the DC metro, and because engraved goods ship well, we take mail-in work from anywhere in the country.

Related reading

• What can be laser engraved? A working guide to materials
• Custom engraving in Northern Virginia: how our process works