Scroll engraviing

Jonathans

Jonathans

Joined
Jan 9, 2008
Messages
588
I have noticed that some of the beautiful knives who's pictures have been posted here have been embellished by some sort of engraving. I think it really dresses up some knives quite well.
Do most of you pros who utilize engraving do it yourselves, or send your work out to an engraving artist to do? If you do it yourself, could you please comment a bit on how you got started? Thanks
 
I do my own engraving. I learned many years ago,when I worked for a master jeweler. He gave me advice and got me started, but I learned on my own.
When appropriate, hand engraving can be a great embellishment.
Engraving takes years to learn.
 
Go for it! There are several engravers' forums.
I'll be happy to help here.
 
Thanks Bill,
I am aware of The engravers cafe and ordered a dvd called From Start To Finish by Sam Alfano to get an idea as to whats involved. A decent tooling setup seems quite spendy.
 
Ebay is your friend for tools.
Some chisels and a chasing hammer will get you started.
An engraving vise can get pretty expensive, but if you shop around you can still find good deals.
For powered engraving, the N Graver flexible shaft powered handpiece is relatively inexpensive.
Sam Alfano is a marvelous engraver!
 
You could also build yourself a bowling ball vise to get started engraving. They are not as nice and small and mobile as a real graver's ball for hand cutting a curve while turning the vise. I do find that mine is quite handy for engraving with a hammer, though. I can keep turning the vise when cutting scrolls and I can adjust the angle of the work as necessary. Google bowling ball vise...
Get a copy of "The Art of Engraving" by James Meek. It's a good thorough introduction to the field.
As Bill says, some basic gravers and die sinker's chisels and a cheap chasing hammer will get you going. I've not been practicing for very long, just got comfortable with working on my first knife to feature engraving work, for sale... it takes a lot of practice!
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