Bread and Butter/practice plates

[griff silver]

This is a bridle bit they are what pays the bills if you know what i mean. I gotta make these prety much all day every day. I dont sale them for a whole lot of money so there kind of a price point deal. (best for the price) anyway I usally get all my "brain fart" ideas out of the way while engraving them since i can get away with experamentation. I sharpend a 120degree graver to try to out line the scrolls and didnt like it. I was wondering what you guys use to cut the edges of scrolls? All critques welcomed! Thanks Griff

P.S. before the stone setters union kicks me out of the cafe, the stone is so deep so that a horse cant rub it on a fence or anything

 

[TallGary]

Griff,

It would help if you can describe what you don't like about the effect that you got with the 120 graver.

Do you usually wriggle the backbone with a flat graver and using the 120 is a change in technique?

Depending on the style, I would normally use either a 120 or a flat graver. Roll the 120 slightly toward the leaf or stem of the vine to give a sculpted edge look to the engraving. I don't go too deep unless I want to do quite a bit more in the way of deep relief sculpting and modeling.

Gary

 

[Kerry Bogan]

Griff
The bits look neat do you have a closeup?
Lately when I cut scrolls with background removal I make the outline cut with a square graver or 100, 110, 120 (perpendicular) and then relieve and stipple the back ground. I then go back and re cut the outline with the graver tilted slightly in toward the scroll. I like this because it gives a nice clean very fine line between the background and stippleing and the bottom edge of the scroll, leaf etc. Also if I miss and mark the side of the scroll while cutting background or stippleing I can clean it up at this time. You would have to use your judgment for where and when to use this technique.
Kerry

 

[PS_Bond]

Nice stuff. I'm not sure if the dressage judges here would accept the bling, they seem to be limited to fancy browbands and stock pins. I ought to ask...

What's the construction there? The copper is, I'm guessing, soldered on; is the rest of the scrollwork onlay or straight into the steel?

 

[Kerry Bogan]

Griff
I was able to zoom in and get a better look, I like it.
By the way I have trouble controlling more obtuse angles like 120. They showup the problem of not keeping them pefectly perpendicular when you want too. The 90 degree is more forgiving. The technique that I mentioned came from Jim Small, it isn't mine but it works great.
Kerry

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Kerry

What you just descibed is exactly what I do as well. It's automatic on everything I engrave. Another beauty of that method is that it gives the optical illusion of the engraving being deeper than it really is. After relieving and stippling the background the chances of the walls of the engraving being damaged to some extent is pretty high as you say. By recutting and tidying up those edges you can get a very nice light sparkle to your work which adds to the three dimensional look of the engraving. Of course in some cases that may no be desirable.

The 90 is a good tool and is a lot more forgiving than the 120. A nice medium between the two can be a 105-110. If you start out with a 90 then you can always creep up to a 120 once your tool control becomes a bit better.

Another usefull tool is the 70 for shading. Depending on exactly what you're trying to acheive it can add a more delicate look to the engraving.

I think the most important thing to remember is that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the graver width/angle. It's a matter of personal preference and what you are trying to acheive and what you want your finished engraving work to look like.

I guess the moral of the story is to keep experimenting till you find somthing that suits your needs.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Kerry Bogan]

Andrew
Yes I use this method all the time now also.and you're right it does give the impression of more depth and really adds sparkle. I started out with hammer and chisle and square and flat gravers for a lot of years to where I'm so comfortable with it's more reluctance too change. The 100-120 are very nice and I do use them quite a bit as on an English/American (sorry Marcus) scroll for jewelry when I want bling. Thanks
Kerry