engraving is no difference from any other art form or medium, be it music, painting, or kitchen design. styles/genres fall in and out of fashion. we may wish to think it's immune to the fickle tastes of the unwashed masses, but it ain't. at the moment, classic engraving of the sort...
Oh, perhaps I misunderstood. Was this not a factory-commissioned piece, but was engraved after-market? Or it was factory, but Wm.Henry is just not really able to say who did it? They do make a lot of knives...
Now that y'all mention it, I was thinking that "SR" looked kinda familiar, too! Seems like I've seen that "SW" on the side in the 3rd & 4th pics before somewhere, as well. Hmmmm......
Thanks, Martin! Apparently it was just done so BADLY it was unrecognizable. So, to recap:
An inexperienced/incompetent operator
+ Poorly set up, worn out, wobbly machine
+ Dull tool point
+ Worn template?
+ Chatter & dragging & skipping
= That mess.
I was tasked with engraving over the bad pantograph lettering* on the base of a golf tournament trophy (oh, the glamorous life of a world-class artist!) and it was fairly large, hollow, and not particularly sturdy. While it was pretty heavy gauge copper, thickly nickel plated, its overall size...
i use a a piece of 3/4" plywood slightly smaller* than the dimensions of the plate, then use wood screws to attach a 3/4" x 1.5"w x length of board cleat on the back. it gets repositioned as necessary.
*i use a thin smear of hot glue to attach the plate. when you want to remove it, flip it...
"mitch, if i didn't know better, i would say that you are trying to make me do MORE work than if i drew it on the piece...."
you seemed intent upon avoiding that. i use "whatever works best". sometimes that's drawing right on the metal, sometimes on paper>transfer, sometimes a hybrid method...
draw it on paper. go to your local office supply. make a copy on a transparency. make a copy thru the back of the transparency. you can adjust/reduce the size at whichever step you find most convenient. use a process for transfers with laser printers.