Christmas gifts for a veteran: a branch badge, a name and a rank

A sergeant might sign as SGT, as Sgt. or with the whole word. We engrave the rank exactly as it is typed into the order, so before anything else, find out how the person you're buying for writes theirs. A card they signed or a quick question to someone in the family will usually settle it.

The rest is simpler. We have badge artwork for the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and the Coast Guard, and two pieces in the shop are laid out around a badge, a name and a rank.

A flask with room on both faces

The military flask is our flat 6 oz flask, 4.76 by 3.54 inches on each side. One face holds the badge with the name and rank. The second face is the same size, and engraving it is optional; it takes a longer line than the front has room for, such as the years they served. The product page has ten designs to start from.

Where the laser goes through the matte black finish, the steel shows as silver. It closes with a leak-proof screw cap. No funnel comes with it, and it should be washed by hand.

A lighter with a fixed layout

The military lighter is a slim stainless steel flip-top, 2.24 by 1.46 by 0.47 inches, coated matte black. Its front always follows one order: the name and the rank or title across the top, the branch badge underneath. A date or a short line of your own goes on the back, on the lid of the tin, or on both.

The lid is windproof and the lighter runs on ordinary lighter fluid. It reaches you dry, as every lighter we ship does, and the engraving reads light against the black.

A unit crest instead of the branch badge

For some people the unit is what they'd want to carry. Then send us the crest. Under Design, pick Custom Logo and attach the file: PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, SVG or CDR, up to 20 MB. Line art saved as SVG, PDF or CDR engraves the most cleanly. A crest has a lot of fine detail, so if you'd like to see it placed on the piece before we engrave, ask for a proof.

The flask and the flip-top both take a crest this way. So does a genuine Zippo, made in Bradford, PA, and engraved by us in Texas, in black matte, brushed chrome or brushed brass. On a Zippo the finish sets the color of the mark. Black matte engraves gold, chrome silver-white and brass beige, and we can't change that. It ships in the original Zippo box.

Our other flasks and lighters accept a crest wherever Custom Logo appears in the Design menu.