joseph engraver
Elite Cafe Member
To the members of the Engravers Café
While browsing the internet I found a thread that interested me, I picked it up and followed it here, it led me to you. I have retired from gun engraving, my hands are shaky, with age and I have developed other interests. But for twenty five years I learned and worked with diligence, as the noble art of gun engraving became my teacher of patience in a quiet little studio in Cody Wyoming. I was engraving mostly on older Winchester rifles, as I found no appeal in modern weapons. The surface on the lever action 1876 Winchester is huge (some were around 40 sq. inches.) compared to bolsters on a knife or a coin the initial investment in cash and labor is daunting. From the day I finished my training in Italy, I did nothing other than engrave for a living. It was not a hobby, it was my life and I was motivated to labor daily at a vise because the bear was at the door and the cupboards were bare. The effort applied has paid off and I now enjoy my golden years here in Mexico at latitude 17 longitude 21.
These are some thoughts that have come to me in the last few days since visiting The Engravers Cafe. I know how much effort it takes to learn engraving.
To put these personal thoughts on the ways of the craft for your perusal has been enjoyable. It is a wonderful website and I hope this thread will be of interest to you.
Things to consider
No matter how hard you discipline yourself you will never be completely satisfied with your efforts.
There is a certain moment when your mind tells you that the work is complete. This is where you must stop to evaluate the work and put it away. Should you decide to make just one more cut, it is the one you will always regret
When the work is completed to your satisfaction, show it to your pals then put it away. Exactly two days later, take out side where the sunlight will tell you the truth. Study the work carefully. See those ragged cuts, the places where your gold inlays didn’t fill in the corners, or that line of gold that looks like a limp wandering noodle. Ask yourself what’s wrong with that gold line. Have you cut it to perfection? Is the gold is perfectly fitted? Has it pizzazz, life, zip? Or does it wander bored and pointlessly through your design? Is it boring? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, congratulations you have advanced to a new plateau. Truth is the only way you will advance is by recognizing your mistakes after you have made them, ask Da Vinci.
When you plan your work you must be brave, and when you make your first cut into precious steel do it with courage. Truth is it always best to screw up in the beginning, where you can improvise, rather than at the finish where you have few or no outs.
When you take on a project that will test your endurance, skill and patience consider each days work as a project. If you try and envision the hours of stress, labor, and dedication needed to see a major engraving work of hundreds of hours brought to its fruition you will be haunted by it. Patience comes in increments, when I was a student at Bodega Govanelli my teacher would evaluate my work by saying “this is a three, tomorrow you must make fiveâ€. When I arrived at level five he would say ‘Now work for level six.†When I arrived at level seven.He said "You have made it this far you may as well try for level ten"
This is how I approach a project. A lions head in gold for example.
Do the research; make drawings, tracings and reductions.
Then transfer drawing to weapon, detail the drawing out for cutting.
At this point you should have drawn the lion three or four times and be totally familiar with every line that you have to cut.
Now you get to the hard part. Put the work away, go for a hike, take your wife to a movie, make love to your boyfriend, do something refreshing besides thinking about this beautiful project you have begun.
Return to you work with a fresh eye. I once worked as an apprentice for a very fine gunsmith. He was examining my work to see if it suited him, it did not and he kindly explained that we have two eyes. One that sees things as we would like them to be, the other sees things as they really are. That it your master eye and if you expect to receive recognition and advancement as an engraver-artist it is your duty to train it to see the smallest detail. Remember, the fine art of engraving is a discipline in patience
Now is major decision time. Is the lion going to be flush inlaid or a raised flat figure slightly sculpted? Based on that decision. What tool point will you use to execute the work? Is it sharp? What punches will be required to complete the job properly. I would guess that in my toolbox there were forty punches of various shapes and textures and sizes. Which ones you should you use? These decisions should have come to during your break because if you are passionate about your work you would have resolved these problems while you were at the movies. Once you have made your decisions, then cut outline of lion and prepared the space to accept the gold. Before you stick a piece of malleable metal onto, or into steel the surface must be properly prepared. If it does not adhere the first time (follow James Meeks advice, in his book The Art of Engraving.) Now set gold, sculpt, shape, and outline general features.
I recommend that you skip putting in the beautiful details that you have been considering and go to work designing the next vignette. This is a major project you have begun and you have six more inlays to go plus the fore end cap, screws, lever, barrel, and hammer, which are tedious and demanding. Do a few of these parts each day to warm up your reflexes and muscles The fine details in soft gold and silver are done last to prevent accidental damage during the rest of the engraving project,
The experience you gain from each discipline should make you better and faster, remember time is money don’t dawdle. Use the proper tool for the job. I have used a one inch wide carpenters chisel (properly sharpened) to remove the excess gold from large flush gold figures in less than 3 minutes, Then spend twenty minutes polishing and burnishing, of course if you are afraid that the gold you inlayed will not stand the test, you might opt for the conservative route, and spend the hours necessary to scrape and file and polish. And then have your client return after a hunting trip to Bangladesh without his precious gold. You must test your inlays for adherence.
It is better to learn, and suffer your mistakes in solitude than in front of a crowd, believe me on this one
You must suffer in one form or another to succeed in your endeavors to rise to the rewards of success, it is what separates the person with ambition and desires from the multitude.
To engrave with delicacy and grace you must exercise you fingers and learn to control your mind when it gets to wandering.
The second you feel the burin or chisel is not cutting correctly, stop immediately and sharpen it.
In order to advance you must not be afraid to take risks, however to take risks without a plan of design worked out is dumb. Before you make the first cut into that precious steel have your designs well established.
These words of great wisdom come from and old friend and magnificent hammer and chisel engraver, Frank Hendricks. ‘I never drink whisky when I work. It makes me too brave.
The most profitable use of you labor is to do reproducible art. Frank Hendricks told me. “You will never make any real money engraving guns, it’s too labor intensive, you are better off making belt buckles, and bolo ties, you do the work once, make a mold and then you can sell it forever .â€
I took his advice and turned to sculpture. He was one hundred percent right. If you engrave only for money by doing commercial work, you can be quite successful. If wish for artistic freedom, you will suffer,
There are many unscrupulous people who will take advantage of your desires for recognition, never engrave a weapon for free, even if it is for display, if you want to have potential clients see your work, engrave on steel plates, and leave them where they can be seen, that way at least you own your work, and they will be wonderful mementos as you approach the end of your career. There is absolutely no profit in free labor. You are going to need every dime to survive, while you struggle for recognition and reward.
And remember, eighty-five out of one hundred will quit gun engraving in despair, the discipline is that tough.
I will post some old photos with the Cafe.
Over the last four years I have had the time to write a book, the subject of which is in most part about engraving. The title is A Gifted Man, memoir of an artist. It can be viewed at<www.iuniverse.com>book store, I hope you will look at and buy a copy. You can contact me at joseph123joe@yahoo.com
While browsing the internet I found a thread that interested me, I picked it up and followed it here, it led me to you. I have retired from gun engraving, my hands are shaky, with age and I have developed other interests. But for twenty five years I learned and worked with diligence, as the noble art of gun engraving became my teacher of patience in a quiet little studio in Cody Wyoming. I was engraving mostly on older Winchester rifles, as I found no appeal in modern weapons. The surface on the lever action 1876 Winchester is huge (some were around 40 sq. inches.) compared to bolsters on a knife or a coin the initial investment in cash and labor is daunting. From the day I finished my training in Italy, I did nothing other than engrave for a living. It was not a hobby, it was my life and I was motivated to labor daily at a vise because the bear was at the door and the cupboards were bare. The effort applied has paid off and I now enjoy my golden years here in Mexico at latitude 17 longitude 21.
These are some thoughts that have come to me in the last few days since visiting The Engravers Cafe. I know how much effort it takes to learn engraving.
To put these personal thoughts on the ways of the craft for your perusal has been enjoyable. It is a wonderful website and I hope this thread will be of interest to you.
Things to consider
No matter how hard you discipline yourself you will never be completely satisfied with your efforts.
There is a certain moment when your mind tells you that the work is complete. This is where you must stop to evaluate the work and put it away. Should you decide to make just one more cut, it is the one you will always regret
When the work is completed to your satisfaction, show it to your pals then put it away. Exactly two days later, take out side where the sunlight will tell you the truth. Study the work carefully. See those ragged cuts, the places where your gold inlays didn’t fill in the corners, or that line of gold that looks like a limp wandering noodle. Ask yourself what’s wrong with that gold line. Have you cut it to perfection? Is the gold is perfectly fitted? Has it pizzazz, life, zip? Or does it wander bored and pointlessly through your design? Is it boring? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, congratulations you have advanced to a new plateau. Truth is the only way you will advance is by recognizing your mistakes after you have made them, ask Da Vinci.
When you plan your work you must be brave, and when you make your first cut into precious steel do it with courage. Truth is it always best to screw up in the beginning, where you can improvise, rather than at the finish where you have few or no outs.
When you take on a project that will test your endurance, skill and patience consider each days work as a project. If you try and envision the hours of stress, labor, and dedication needed to see a major engraving work of hundreds of hours brought to its fruition you will be haunted by it. Patience comes in increments, when I was a student at Bodega Govanelli my teacher would evaluate my work by saying “this is a three, tomorrow you must make fiveâ€. When I arrived at level five he would say ‘Now work for level six.†When I arrived at level seven.He said "You have made it this far you may as well try for level ten"
This is how I approach a project. A lions head in gold for example.
Do the research; make drawings, tracings and reductions.
Then transfer drawing to weapon, detail the drawing out for cutting.
At this point you should have drawn the lion three or four times and be totally familiar with every line that you have to cut.
Now you get to the hard part. Put the work away, go for a hike, take your wife to a movie, make love to your boyfriend, do something refreshing besides thinking about this beautiful project you have begun.
Return to you work with a fresh eye. I once worked as an apprentice for a very fine gunsmith. He was examining my work to see if it suited him, it did not and he kindly explained that we have two eyes. One that sees things as we would like them to be, the other sees things as they really are. That it your master eye and if you expect to receive recognition and advancement as an engraver-artist it is your duty to train it to see the smallest detail. Remember, the fine art of engraving is a discipline in patience
Now is major decision time. Is the lion going to be flush inlaid or a raised flat figure slightly sculpted? Based on that decision. What tool point will you use to execute the work? Is it sharp? What punches will be required to complete the job properly. I would guess that in my toolbox there were forty punches of various shapes and textures and sizes. Which ones you should you use? These decisions should have come to during your break because if you are passionate about your work you would have resolved these problems while you were at the movies. Once you have made your decisions, then cut outline of lion and prepared the space to accept the gold. Before you stick a piece of malleable metal onto, or into steel the surface must be properly prepared. If it does not adhere the first time (follow James Meeks advice, in his book The Art of Engraving.) Now set gold, sculpt, shape, and outline general features.
I recommend that you skip putting in the beautiful details that you have been considering and go to work designing the next vignette. This is a major project you have begun and you have six more inlays to go plus the fore end cap, screws, lever, barrel, and hammer, which are tedious and demanding. Do a few of these parts each day to warm up your reflexes and muscles The fine details in soft gold and silver are done last to prevent accidental damage during the rest of the engraving project,
The experience you gain from each discipline should make you better and faster, remember time is money don’t dawdle. Use the proper tool for the job. I have used a one inch wide carpenters chisel (properly sharpened) to remove the excess gold from large flush gold figures in less than 3 minutes, Then spend twenty minutes polishing and burnishing, of course if you are afraid that the gold you inlayed will not stand the test, you might opt for the conservative route, and spend the hours necessary to scrape and file and polish. And then have your client return after a hunting trip to Bangladesh without his precious gold. You must test your inlays for adherence.
It is better to learn, and suffer your mistakes in solitude than in front of a crowd, believe me on this one
You must suffer in one form or another to succeed in your endeavors to rise to the rewards of success, it is what separates the person with ambition and desires from the multitude.
To engrave with delicacy and grace you must exercise you fingers and learn to control your mind when it gets to wandering.
The second you feel the burin or chisel is not cutting correctly, stop immediately and sharpen it.
In order to advance you must not be afraid to take risks, however to take risks without a plan of design worked out is dumb. Before you make the first cut into that precious steel have your designs well established.
These words of great wisdom come from and old friend and magnificent hammer and chisel engraver, Frank Hendricks. ‘I never drink whisky when I work. It makes me too brave.
The most profitable use of you labor is to do reproducible art. Frank Hendricks told me. “You will never make any real money engraving guns, it’s too labor intensive, you are better off making belt buckles, and bolo ties, you do the work once, make a mold and then you can sell it forever .â€
I took his advice and turned to sculpture. He was one hundred percent right. If you engrave only for money by doing commercial work, you can be quite successful. If wish for artistic freedom, you will suffer,
There are many unscrupulous people who will take advantage of your desires for recognition, never engrave a weapon for free, even if it is for display, if you want to have potential clients see your work, engrave on steel plates, and leave them where they can be seen, that way at least you own your work, and they will be wonderful mementos as you approach the end of your career. There is absolutely no profit in free labor. You are going to need every dime to survive, while you struggle for recognition and reward.
And remember, eighty-five out of one hundred will quit gun engraving in despair, the discipline is that tough.
I will post some old photos with the Cafe.
Over the last four years I have had the time to write a book, the subject of which is in most part about engraving. The title is A Gifted Man, memoir of an artist. It can be viewed at<www.iuniverse.com>book store, I hope you will look at and buy a copy. You can contact me at joseph123joe@yahoo.com
