How to engrave

Getting your seed phrase onto your Hodlinox plates is very easy, either use a handheld engraver such as the Dremel 290 or Wen 21D.
If you prefer to stamp the letters, we recommend a letter height of 5mm (0.2 inch).
Always engrave your seed phrase yourself; do not ask someone else to do this for you.


Write down words with a permanent marker

Step 1: set up temporarily with a marker

Waterproof marker pen

Write your seed phrase on the plate(s) using a waterproof marker pen. This will help you eliminate typos when engraving.

Next, check your seed phrase to make sure you haven’t made any mistakes. 

Tip: because the first 4 letters of each word in your seed phrase are unique, you can also choose to engrave only the first 4 letters of each word onto the plates. You don’t necessarily need to write the entire word.

 

Engrave the seed phrase onto the metal plates

Step 2: trace with engraving pen


Engraving pen

Engrave the words onto the plates with a vibrating electric engraving pen, such as the Dremel 290 or Wen 21D.

This is very easy and engraving a 24-word seed phrase only takes about 10 minutes. Using an engraver is like writing with a large pen and it doesn’t require any special skills, practice or additional tools.

It’s not recommended to use a battery-operated engraving pen. These pens have less power and their engravings are too superficial.

You can also punch the letters with a letter punching set, we recommend a letter height of approximately 5mm or 0.2 inch.
Make sure that your hammer is sufficiently heavy and use a sturdy, flat surface.

Always test recovery from the seed phrase before transferring large amounts to your wallet.

 

Lock plates together

Step 3: lock with security seal (Interlocking plates only)

Slide the opposing sides of both plates into each other and hook the padlock seal through the slotted hole.

Store the unique code on the seal (or a photo of it) in a safe place, such as a password manager. Don’t store the seal serial number in the same location as your plates.

Hodlinox seals are tamper-evident, can only be used once, are numbered sequentially and can’t be removed without being damaged.

With the seal in place, you can allow trusted third parties to handle the plates on your behalf while you will always be able to verify that the seed phrase has not been compromised.

Store the plates somewhere safe (e.g. with a family member) in a different geographical location than your hardware wallet.

Removing the seal can be done with wire cutters or universal pliers.