Help, please: a question about bulino

KatherinePlumer

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Hi everyone. Okay, I've been experimenting a little with the bulino technique, and I have a big question. I'm not sure how well I can explain this, but I'll try.

Under certain lighting, the image shows up dark against the lightness of the background. Yay! That's good, right? But under other lighting (this being most of the time, unless I line it up *just* right) the image is negative-- the engraved areas look light and the un-engraved background looks dark.

Does that mean I'm doing it wrong? Or is that just how it works?

Hmmm.

-Katherine
 

carl bleile

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That's about right. The beautiful pictures you see in books of this style of engraving are photographed in just the right light. If you were to hold one of these guns in your hand the picture would be hard to see untill you get it in the light at the right angle and even then with the light bounce it's not easy to view it's a very subdued type of engraving.
It is a different technique which I call banknote style that can be easily seen in any light. The picture of the dog below is banknote style, sorry I don't know how to soom in for a better look.
Carl Bleile
southwest,Ohio
 

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Andrew Biggs

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Hi Katherine

I would have to concur with what Roger has just said. The dot type bulino (like that you would use for your scrimshaw) can be difficult to see under certain light.

I picked up a gun at the SCI show that was just straight out wonderful but you had to move the gun or your head around to see it properley. The line technique overcomes this type of thing and seems to be a bit more robust on the eye.

It really boils down to personal preference and what you like or dislike. Both methods, or a combination of the two, are perfectley acceptable and equally as stunning to the owners of the peice.

Carl......I have a question for you please

What exactley is bank note style? I know the obviouse thing to do is to have a look at a bank note. :)

But I have also noticed another style where the cut goes from thin to thick to thin again like over the contours of clothing etc.......almost like a jagged cut, but deliberatley so. Is that something else altogether or still under the broad heading of bank note?

Cheers
Andrew
 
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Roger Bleile

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Carl......I have a question for you please

What exactley is bank note style? I know the obviouse thing to do is to have a look at a bank note. :)

But I have also noticed another style where the cut goes from thin to thick to thin again like over the contours of clothing etc.......almost like a jagged cut, but deliberatley so. Is that something else altogether or still under the broad heading of bank note?

Cheers
Andrew

Andrew,

Since Carl is not on line at the moment and I am I will try to answer your question. The style of engraving you are describing was, among other things, used by print media engravers like the studio of Gustave Dore'. It was done on the end grain of basswood blocks which were bolted together, depending on the size of the printed image. Unlike copperplate engraving where the plate was covered by ink then the surface bladed off to print from the cut lines, the wood block engravings were printed from the surface of the block. This means that the engraved lines in the block printed as the white lines and the unengraved parts of the block were the black. Besides the usual engraving tools we are familiar with, these engravers used tools known as roulettes which when rolled over the surface of the block would leave a pattern of dots or dashed or lines to cover spaces more quickly. Some of the blocks were quite large, especially when printing an image for a newspaper or gazette. The lines that purposely varied in width created a type of shading that is not practiced today with perhaps the exception of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This style of pictorial engraving reached its zenith in the late 19th century and mostly died away due to the use of offset lithography that used photo etched plates made from photographs.

The following links are just two example of Dore's work: http://www.truthbook.com/images/sit...Jesus_at_the_house_of_Martha_and_Mary_400.jpg
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...sp=20&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&sa=N

CRB
 
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Andrew Biggs

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Hi Roger

Thanks very much for that explanation. The varying widths of line creating the shading is a particurlary attractive style and incredibly subtle. It's not quite obvious at first and it's not till you zoom in and examine the actual cuts that you pick up on it.

Great links thanks :)

Cheers
Andrew
 

carl bleile

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When I'm doing banknote style engraving on metal I make many different cuts, tapering lines, stright or curved lines, dashes and some dots, but to over simplify the technique it's the depth of the cuts that help trap the light and make shadow, a bit like looking down a man hole or looking in a cave opening.
I think the term mostly refers to what the finished work looks like rather than the style of cutting.
Hope Roger and I were of some help,
Carl Bleile
southwest,Ohio
 

filbertius

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bank-note also would cover engraving such as in the article about the master class in the current Engraver, right?

gary
 

rod

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Andrew,

Hope this picture comes through ....

from last GRS Master weekend, a large print... off the original engraving... allowed me to take a close up of a very small part of the print which shows the detail of work very clearly, as the print, from about 1830 was large. It belonged to Alain.

Note the various 'stars' cut between line intersections to give variations of shading, some are simple crosses and others are multi to give a darker tone.

The beauty of examining these large prints is that the detail shows very clearly.

best

Rod
 
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FANCYGUN

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bank-note also would cover engraving such as in the article about the master class in the current Engraver, right?

Gary
The GM class was particularly geared towards bank note style engraving. That is why I took the class and hope you enjoyed may article on the class
Marty
 

KatherinePlumer

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Thanks for the explanations. Hopefully I'm at least somewhat on the right track with this. I'll probably bring it to Reno though it probably won't be done. It's just a little practice plate. So similar and yet so different than scrimshaw!

-Katherine
 

Andrew Biggs

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Hi Katherine

Yes, bring it to Reno as I'd love to see it............and any other scrimshaw work you may have.

Photos are great but the real deal is always so much better. The real thing has a life that photos just never seem to quite capture. I still remember the black dog scrimshaw you brought along last time...........it was absolutley stunning.

Cheers
Andrew
 

Ron Smith

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katherine,

True banknote was done with the intentions of being printed and it is the ink that makes the lines visible, not the lines themselves. Therefore, it is not very suited for steel engraving unless you intensify it with more lines and dots and treat it differently. A plate to print from needs to be highly polished.

You can deminish the light reflection off of your cuts by using a narrow point, where the light bounces back and forth inside the cut rather than out of the cut into your eyes, but even this is only a slight improvement. Killing shine is them ost important aspect to making bulino show at it's best potential. I don't polish my gravers, but leave a stone finish. 600 grit. This helps a little, and then an acid treatment will bring the engraving out even further, which I would rather do instead of using ink as I think ink cheapens the effect of good engraving except with and for photography. Bulino also looks better on a 400 or 600 grit finished practice plate. A high polish will destort your visual appreciation of the work, or any shine for that matter.

Hope this helps to understand.

Ron S
 

carl bleile

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Kathrine, here is a picture of a gun I saw advertised it is done in bulino style. the person who took the picture didn't know how to set up for the perfect lighting and this is more like what it looks like in your hand.
Carl Bleile
southwest,Ohio
 

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KatherinePlumer

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Carl, YES! Oh my gosh thank you for showing that. About 99% of the time I look at what I'm doing and think "ewww." Gotta get it lit just the right way before I say "oooh!"

Maybe there's hope after all. ;)

-Katherine
 

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