APA Open Community

Does anyone have experience with laser engraving Otto Hutt fountain pens?

A customer wants me to duplicate lettering on a pen. The lettering appears to be laser with color fill.

This is on a plastic barrel.

I was hoping someone had engraved these and could pass on any information. 

Thanks, 

Does anyone have experience with laser engraving Otto Hutt fountain pens?

A customer wants me to duplicate lettering on a pen. The lettering appears to be laser with color fill.

This is on a plastic barrel.

I was hoping someone had engraved these and could pass on any information. 

Thanks, 

------------------------------
Fred Pennington
A-1 Trophy Center
Albuquerque NM
505.256.7109
------------------------------

I'm going to qualify my forthcoming statement with the fact that I have never engraved an Otto Hutt pen.  I have been asked to, but customers have never been willing to assume the risks involved. To comfort them I had done my research, shared the facts, but since I had no real world experience with the engraving of them I put the onus on the customer.

I am not familiar with 100% of the Otto Hutt line but I don't think they make a plastic coated pen barrel.  What you are likely looking at is what is considered "modern lacquer" which does have some resin in it for the color.  After the colored lacquer is applied they add clear coats to give it its luster.  With this type of material I always go high speed and low power running multiple passes to build my depth and to avoid a melting or burn halo around the borders of the engraving.  I can always bump up the power along the way if I am being too conservative and not achieving any depth.  You do want to avoid being too aggressive or you will risk the aforementioned burn halo which is a very amateurish look the customer will not like.

Most of the coated Otto Hutt pens still have brass barrels, so if you get through the coating you will be exposing the gold brass tone.  I'm not sure you want to go there due to the thickness of the coating, but that's up to you.  Thicker coatings often don't allow enough light to hit the surface of the engraving so the engraving loses the brilliance you might typically expect.  I guess at that point you could do a metallic paint fill to resolve that issue.

------------------------------
David Takes
Expressions Engraved
Saint Joseph, MO
816.232.6000
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2026 15:25
From: Fred Pennington
Subject: Otto Hutt pens

Does anyone have experience with laser engraving Otto Hutt fountain pens?

A customer wants me to duplicate lettering on a pen. The lettering appears to be laser with color fill.

This is on a plastic barrel.

I was hoping someone had engraved these and could pass on any information. 

Thanks, 

------------------------------
Fred Pennington
A-1 Trophy Center
Albuquerque NM
505.256.7109
------------------------------

I'm going to qualify my forthcoming statement with the fact that I have never engraved an Otto Hutt pen.  I have been asked to, but customers have never been willing to assume the risks involved. To comfort them I had done my research, shared the facts, but since I had no real world experience with the engraving of them I put the onus on the customer.

I am not familiar with 100% of the Otto Hutt line but I don't think they make a plastic coated pen barrel.  What you are likely looking at is what is considered "modern lacquer" which does have some resin in it for the color.  After the colored lacquer is applied they add clear coats to give it its luster.  With this type of material I always go high speed and low power running multiple passes to build my depth and to avoid a melting or burn halo around the borders of the engraving.  I can always bump up the power along the way if I am being too conservative and not achieving any depth.  You do want to avoid being too aggressive or you will risk the aforementioned burn halo which is a very amateurish look the customer will not like.

Most of the coated Otto Hutt pens still have brass barrels, so if you get through the coating you will be exposing the gold brass tone.  I'm not sure you want to go there due to the thickness of the coating, but that's up to you.  Thicker coatings often don't allow enough light to hit the surface of the engraving so the engraving loses the brilliance you might typically expect.  I guess at that point you could do a metallic paint fill to resolve that issue.

------------------------------
David Takes
Expressions Engraved
Saint Joseph, MO
816.232.6000

Original Message:
Sent: 05-04-2026 15:25
From: Fred Pennington
Subject: Otto Hutt pens

Does anyone have experience with laser engraving Otto Hutt fountain pens?

A customer wants me to duplicate lettering on a pen. The lettering appears to be laser with color fill.

This is on a plastic barrel.

I was hoping someone had engraved these and could pass on any information. 

Thanks, 

------------------------------
Fred Pennington
A-1 Trophy Center
Albuquerque NM
505.256.7109
------------------------------