A new bulino-scrimshaw stippling tool

[Christian DeCamillis]

There was a lot of interest a while back for a dotting tool that would make consistent dots. Take a look at the video blog and let me know what you think. I think this will do what everyone has been asking.

Thanks Chris

http://www.engraversstudio.com/apps/vblog/

 

[Willem Parel]

I think it's a great idea Chris, and it works well so it seems.
I think you should make it adjustable (with a slit or something) for the length of the graver or for the depth of the dots, but probably you had that in mind as well.
Willem

 

[Brian Hochstrat]

It does create nice crisp dotting. But, if I see this correctly, it looks like it just punches a stipple dot rather than cutting a bulino dot(which removes a bit of metal and leaves a diamond shaped cut), stippling displaces metal and creates a crater and raises a ring of metal that will shine around each dot, so how do you deal with that problem?

Also, if it is just stippling. Is it really fair to call it a bulino tool? With all the confusion between stipple and bulino that already exists, by calling this a bulino dot handpiece. Would this not cause more confusion?

 

[BrianPowley]

Chris, Neat little gizwidget!
Call it Stipple/bulino/whatever----I thrive on confusion! LOL!

 

[Christian DeCamillis]

Brian, I will try to answer your questions. Originally Fraccasi who was the first to do what we call the dot technique use to do it without removing the metal. Later he changed his technique and started to remove it.

Later when Torcoli started to use the technique he cut much deeper and cut more of a dash or very short line and also sometimes he cut what we refer to as a dot. In other words he mixed the two.

At this time everyone was using the line technique so the dot technique was new.

There has always been some use of punch or dotting for certain things like backgrounds foliage and such.

Crative nArt started using a mixed technique about 15 years ago, They were taught the line technique originally. They use more of a dash then a dot . They also cross there dashes to create more gradation.Fracassi on the other hand makes every dot the same size and only cuts them in one direction.

Stefano Pedretti is now using a technique more like fraccasi's original technique. He simply pushes in the point of his graver and makes stippled dots. He uses three different size dots. they are so small that they hardly raise or displace the metal. But yes they do have raised area's and yes if used a lot they would become shiny.

So that brings us to stipple bulino. i think and have been working on ways to speed up the process without sacrificing quality. i have found that after doing an engraving in the bulino style using lines that in the area's that are lower which are black by stippling in those area's it makes them even blacker.

The other problem with stippling unless you did it by hand one dot at a time pushing into the metal is that you couldn't control the dots or the gradation. with this tool you can. I think that there are places it can be used exclusively for example, a watch dial it won't get wear. some kind of plaque or award. that hangs on the wall. a picture done on metal as a piece of art again to hand on the wall. for printing it has been done forever. For engraving on knives and guns that won't be used it could be all right.
I think it's best use will be to mix it with the line technique or the cut dot technique. Also for scrimshaw it would work perfectly.

One other thing that I have been working on is the geometry of the point it does displace metal but not very much and it's very consistent. On the sky in the video I scraped the high spots away and it didn't effect it at all. This way i would be assured that there wouldn't be any wear spots after.

As far as what to call or not to call bulino that's a question that will always exist since there are many different techniques to produce it. The problem is and it's been said before that bulino in Italian simply means graver. the Italian's didn't really name it that, they were just saying it was done with my bulino. Since they were the first to perfect and bring the technique to the forefront the name simply became synonymous with the style used for doing game scenes.

so with every thing we do here in the US we call thing what we want we Americanize what comes here and name them accordingly. We change the pronunciation of specific words fro the original. Try saying Munich to some one in Germany and they will look at you and wonder what you just said they don't pronounce it that way. In Italy ask about a cameo and they will not know what your talking about it's not pronounced cameo as we say it's pronounced Ka meh oh. I could go on and on. Most don't pronounce bulino properly as well I hear mos people say balino. and it's boohlino. I'm not saying that people are wrong to do that only that only that that's the way it is here. So what is right and wrong to call something is still a question.

I hope this answers the questions, There good questions and legitimate one i thought that they deserve a full explanation the best i know.

Chris