I was curious about that. I could see maybe wetting the surface for polishing, or even soaking an area of detail with a wet rag overnight, but wondered how such a small amount of moisture would make any difference in carving. Thanks- I learn so much around here. Very little I can use, but...
That's very interesting. It reminds me of reading about Michelangelo spitting on the marble as he carved details to temporarily soften a spot in the stone.
So do you prefer carving newly quarried stone or should it be 'seasoned' like wood?
kinda sounds like something is sticking. have you tried taking everything apart and giving it a good cleaning? reassemble dry- no oil? with the symptoms, could also be a defective regulator, but I'd try cleaning first.
After you've been in a shop/house for a few years, you'll start finding those %$#&ING engraving chips EVERYWHERE. Your clothes, furniture, carpet, pets, you name it. It doesn't matter how careful you are. Not exactly my favorite part about the art...
Are those your cats?
I love robins. We get big winter flocks around here. Maybe a month or so ago I walked thru one for a full city block- dozens of them on everyone's lawns, both sides of the street. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if there were 500 of 'em.
Gravermeisters are a 'negative pressure' system, with the spring behind the piston in the handpieces. The motor pulls an intermittent vacuum that draws the piston back, then the spring drives it forward.
Gravermaxes and their variants are 'positive pressure' systems where pulses of compressed...
i sent the Dyas Farms link to several fellow JRT fans with an offer to pick up & deliver any 'purchases', but haven't gotten any takers. $1200 apiece. yikes. they all were wowed at the handsome little dogs, tho...
I'm steadfastly resisting the urge to 'restock' on any sort of dogs, let alone the highly addictive JRTs (used to have SIX, yes, at one time), but some days my will wavers. They pretty much owned my life for 35 years and now I'm kinda enjoying being able to walk out the door for an hour or a...
I see you've already got the essential Jack Russell Terriers, so you should be ok. I ran out of those about a year ago and my engraving has suffered since.
Nope. I have the transfer ready to go as soon as the varnish is smeared on. Keep in mind, you want a very light coat which will dry to tacky in a just a moment, but that helps hold the transfer in place. You didn't ask, but I use the varnish straight out of the bottle, not thinned with...
you don't have to use superglue. damar varnish works fine, with a very light application of acetone to fuse the toner to the varnish. then rub away the paper with a few drops of water. this technique has been around for at least 6-7 yrs.
the superglue method probably works better, but i...
Search the archive. This topic has been thoroughly covered, including pictures & diagrams and more info than you will know what to do with for just about any scope & vise set-up combination imaginable. Have fun!
I'm wondering how many different engravers worked on that piece. The photos aren't clear enough to make an accurate assessment, but there's definitely enough variation to the style & quality on the panels to see it wasn't all done by the same hand.
For my money, the interior of the bottom is...
There's a funny story as to why I made up a chart for drawing wire down from 18ga/.040" diameter stock. In the mid-1980s somebody was going to do a huge series of custom rifles (let's just leave out the project & people involved) and I was asked to do much of the engraving, which included...
I was probably just doing the math in even numbered B&S gauges. My small drawplate only goes down to 0.0047" (0.12mm), which would be about 37ga. Yeah, I've used that hole from time to time, but not in years. The hard part isn't the drawing*, it's inlaying anything with it. Which is a royal...
I ran across that chart while collecting the surprisingly large array of tools needed to draw wire and in the process of performing that task a couple things occurred to me:
1) It may well be THE engraving-related chore I hate the most;
2) I could do a fairly extensive instructional video on...
Hi Matthew-
I've been following this thread and the only suggestion I'd make is either keep all the leaves inside the scroll or have one or two more spill over into the next. You've got just one leaf doing that in/over the first scroll (ok, kinda two if you count the leaf structure where the...