Finishing Guide For Enamel Pins & Custom Medals

Whenever you buy pins or medals you'll have to select the metal colour (electropate), enamel or textures.  This article showcases the different ways you can decorate your order of custom enamel pins or custom medals. 

This sample card shows you what our logo looks like in a variety of finishes.  With some of the choices it's hard to see the difference. 

ENAMEL GUIDE FOR DIE STUCK PINS AND MEDALS

Hard vs Soft Enamel

Both of these pins are made using the die struck manufacturing process. There are a number of names for "paint" in the custom lapel pin industry. Some companies call it hard or soft enamel. In actual fact it's liquid epoxy.  Each pin is hand coloured using a fine tipped syringe. A foot pump that uses air pressure to move the colour from the syringe to the pin surface. The metal bases are arranged on racks and heated up so that the colour flows nicely between elements. 

Hard enamel costs about 40% more than soft enamel. The difference is the amount of paint used and the "look" of the finished pin. View Pricing

Soft enamel pins are very popular due to the price and the look of the pin. The enamel is not quite level with the surface and has a distinctive, eye catching look. View Pricing

What is Transparent Enamel? 

 We absolutely love trans-enamel. It's the most under-used design option. You can combine this with textured backgrounds  or regular enamel.  View transparent enamel choices.

Glitter Enamel

The creative and artist communities love glitter enamel pins!  The factory uses transparent enamels and then adds different gitter grains to the paint. 

TEXTURE GUIDE

We use textures on metal finish pins and on custom medals extensively. This is the part of design that is very different from print or web.  We can combine enamels and textures for a variety of eye catching looks. When you work with an experienced supplier like us, we'll often suggest these different approaches and elevate the look and feel of your designs. 

Sand Frost Texture

This is amazing metal finish that gives the item a dulled look. Prior to electroplating, the factory sandblasts the bases. After that, they hand buff each medal or pin so that the raised areas are shiny and the recessed areas are dull. It's very classy looking. It does add a bit of cost but in our opinion it's preferable to using a background engraved texture. 

Engraved Texture Backgrounds

For custom medals with a lot of exposed metal in the design, we can add a texture to the background when we engrave the stamping mold. This method of reducing sheen is free. Sand frost finish adds cost to your medal but in our opinion, looks better. If you are running a larger order of medals we may suggest this process over sand frost due to the time it takes to sandblast each medal. 

ELECTROPLATING GUIDE

What is Antique Electroplate?

We use antique finish often on custom medals. A dark wash is applied to the base metal and then the raised areas are buffed off. It gives the metal a distressed or aged look. We often use this electroplate finish on award pins or historical pins.  This electroplate finish is also used a lot on custom medals. It helps cut down the shine on designs with a lot of plain metal. With bronze medals, we always antique them so that you can see the details easier. 

What is Dyed Metal?

In the past few years, we've seen this finishing option take the world by storm. When we stamp art into metal, there typically were compromises that needed to be made in terms of coloured lettering or lines in the art. Until this finish was invented, you could only offer gold, silver or gold raised metal. For artists and creatives who often design with black lines or coloured lines, it was problematic. The process involves an extra step in electroplating that literally colours the metal any hue you want. 

What are Offset Printed Pins? 

This is the one process we offer that has no restrictions. We combine die struck manufacturing with a print out of your design. Then we cover it with clear epoxy and affix it to a metal back.  It's not the most popular way to make a pin but sometimes people have logos or design ideas that simply do not work as a die struck pin.  View pricing and info for printed pins.