Chapi
Elite Cafe Member
I have been engraving for about a year now, and I just completed my first firearm engraving(pictures to come soon). I think that overall, the piece looked passable, but it was not to the level that I would have liked, and not to the level that I was engraving practice plates at even. I actually cut all of the designs for the gun on practice plates first, just so there weren't any surprises, and Murphy's Law raised its ugly head and surprised me anyway, by making the gun steel way harder than the plates, forcing me to re-analize my designs and add leaves so that I wouldn't have to fight as much background removal. It took me twice as long to cut as I had promised the customer, and as I said, it wasn't up to the quality I had expected. Its so frustrating to look at the practice plates and the gun together. I am wondering if anybody knows of a source of hardened plates that would more closely approximate the hardness of your average engravable firearm, or is this something that I could do myself without a kiln or forge(I have hardened punches, but nothing large like a 4" plate-not sure if I could heat that much steel properly with the little propane torch I have). Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
-Chapi
-Chapi