Midwest Engraving Inc, was established in Cincinnati Ohio by, William “Bill” Johns, in 1964. The Company was relocated to the present location in Paola, Kansas in 1970, and has served the Printing & Finishing Industries and has continually provided the highest quality Embossing, Foil Stamping dies, Premade Counters and associated products to the industry. Midwest Engraving, also provides technical assistance to customers, to assist customers in making the right decisions to complete their job and give their customer the results they demand.

 Midwest Engraving Inc. has always strived to supply customers with, the Highest Quality, Fast turn around, at the most reasonable cost. We have customers that have been with us for over 50 years, and keeping them satisfied is paramount.

 

  Bill served in the Navy, 1955 to 1959. Upon discharge from the Navy, He was employed at, Hallmark Cards, where he learned the Engraving trade and the meaning of Quality.

 

  In 1961, Bill took a position with, Gibson Greeting Cards as, Dept. Head, of the Engraving Dept. where he was employed until 1965.

 

 In 1964, Bill founded, Midwest Engraving Inc. Moonlighting out of his garage in spare time, producing dies for a few local Graphic Finishers in Cincinnati.

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 Gibson Greeting Cards was sold to CIT, and things were changing internally…Bill decided it was a good time to make the move, and in early 1965, Bill started working full time with the bulk of his work coming from Gibson Cards. In 1966 the addition of two Engravers, Jim Conover and Denny Lallos was made. Now, a larger facility was needed, and the business was moved into a rented building on Reading Rd. in Reading, Ohio. A short time later Claud Davis joined the group, reuniting  four former Hallmark Engravers.

Since, all the key employees were from the Kansas/Missouri area, Bill made the decision to move the business to his home town area. Preparation was made in 1969, and the move was made in May of 1970 to the present location.

 

  Bills biggest contribution to the Foil Stamping & Embossing trade was the creation of the premade counter… A short time after taking employment at Gibson Greeting, Bill became aware of the amount of time pressman spent doing make readies on press. He got the idea of molding a premade counter (male die) from the Emboss die or a Combination die (before being relieved) from listening to a helper in the foil stamping dept. complaining, “There should be a better way to do make readys". After discussing his idea with the Plant Engineer, Bruce Jones. Bruce designed a small press, that was built by the maintenance Dept. and production of the premade counters was a success from the start.

 

 In the beginning, the Heidleburg pressman accepted them. But, the Emboss die pressmen did not want to make a change and rejected them, and refused to try them. Once they were forced to try them,  the relieved counter became a standard. The counter production procedure was passed on to all outside vendors producing dies for Gibson Cards. These were; The Adolf Bauer Co., VJ Engraving, Daniels Engraving, Schallas Engraving, Greenspan Engraving and Metal Arts Engraving.