Help, please: Antique E.C. Muller gravers and a noob engraver that needs help

[joepac1]

Hi all! Thank you for allowing me to join!

I recently acquired a set of gravers from an antique shop. The box is a re-used seed box, and I'm thinking they're from maybe the 1920s, perhaps? There are 19 gravers, several brushes, a tool that looks like a pencil but is metal, not graphite, and other implements.

I am a woodworker and knifemaker/metalworker, as well as a hobbyist machinist, but have always wanted to get into engraving because my father is a shotgun collector, and I've always loved the intricate engraving and checkering on many of them. However, I know very little about the different graver styles and edge geometries, and was hoping that someone might be able to help me identify what each one might be and what each one's exact application is. Also, what are the brushes for, and what is that "pencil?"

I have no interest in valuing them because I have no plans to ever sell them, but with your help, I can put them to work for the first time in ~100 years! I've already acquired a ball vise, so I'm mostly there for what I think I'll need, but if there's anything else you might recommend for hand push engraving, I'd really appreciate it.

There's a lot of photos, so I've added them to a Google Photos album found here.

Thank you in advance, and I'm super excited to learn as much as possible here!

 

[monk]

i'll help u in a second if the fotos are posted here. all those gravers will work on copper, silver, gold, and pewter. some my be too soft for steel. those too soft for steel may be tempered a bit to work on steel.
hmmm. i did look at the fotos. you will find they all fall into just a few categories based on the shaft cross section. you will find squares, flats, and rounds are the basic shapes. the squares cut a "v" shaped line. the rounds cut a round groove or cut. the very thin ones are called knife gravers. they cut an xtremly fine line.
you have one whale of a journey ahead of you. there are many disciplines needed to succeed at this art. chief among the disciplines is learning to draw well. i'd suggest taking the time to check the tip section to get u off on a good start. good luck to you in your pursuits.