for beginners

[tdelewis]

It seems to me that we have had a number of questions from beginners. Welcome if you are new and a bit of advice. Nothing will get you off to a good start than spending time with a seasoned engraver. I think you will find it well worth the money to spend a day or two of instruction with someone who knows the business.

 

[JJ Roberts]

The best advice I can give is to learn how to draw and get with a good engraving teacher. J.J.

 

[monk]

my 2cw. it's also quite beneficial to a neub to learn how to handle frustration. know that frustration will occur. when it does, it's not the end of the world. i'd guess 90% of the members became flustered a lot. the other 10% simply lied about it.

 

[AllenClapp]

Sam Alfano has a great 2-CD video course for beginning engravers. It includes printable practice plate designs for some of the work and instructions on how to create the other designs. It goes through the basic cuts used in a variety of types of engraving, gives you notes on how best to practice each and know when to progress to the next cuts. Included are cutting scroll lines, leaves, borders, medallions, etc., with instruction on how to shade them as appropriate. It also includes stippling backgrounds (relieving backgrounds is included in his video on advanced shading). For each cut, he discusses the graver shape used and how to make them from a blank. I wish that this kind of thing had been available back in the 1990s when I started to learn to engrave. I would also recommend that you join the Firearm Engravers Guild of America and, if you can, attend some of the annual meetings, where you get to drool over world-class work and attend the free instruction given by master engravers at each session. You can find info on Sam's courses at https://engraving-videos.com/product/beginners-course-in-modern-hand-engraving-dvd/.