How deep to engrave?

[AJB]

On May 18, 2020, Sam Welch wrote, “Numerically...I cut scroll and background at about .003 to .005" in depth. Steel sculpting perhaps a coupe thou more. Gold line borders not much deeper.”

I am a novice, but recognizing that SamW is one of the true master engravers here, so that is the depth that I’ve been shooting for.

I would, however, like to hear from other accomplished engravers on this topic. How deep do are your cuts?

 

[monk]

a good deal of the "depth" that you see is quite often an illusion many of the shots taken thru the scope are showing depth, but at a much smaller scale. creative use of texturing,, shading, sculpting and the addition of colorants create this illusion.
this is a good reason to practice push engraving. the use of the air assist toys will let you effortlessly dig half way through to the other side.

 

[AllenClapp]

A great tool is to closely examine castings of good work. Two good sources for engraving castings are the shopping page at FEGA.com and Layne Zuelke's https://southerncustomengraving.com/index.html. If you really want to drool, try one of the kits by Mike Dubber and Les Schowe on the practice & project shopping page at GRS.com (they have both transfer sheets and a casting of Dubber's original plate for several firearms) https://grs.com/product/2010-colt-transfer-kit/

 

[AJB]

Allen and Monk,

Thank you for your replies. The knowledge and resources that are shared on this site inspired me to give engraving a try after decades of admiring the art of engraving.

I spent over a year reading thousands of post, saving images, and drawing before I picked up a graver. Now I am slowly accumulating equipment, and trying to translate all the information on this forum into usable skills.

Allen, castings are now on my list for future purchases.

Monk, I’ll concentrate more on creating an illusion of depth, rather than the measurement of physical depth.

 

[AllenClapp]

The set of plates produced by Layne Zuelke is a very good starting place for two reasons. Not only do you get one plate that is complete with shading, but you get a starter plate from which you can transfer designs and either cut them as done by him or, using the backbones only, create your own leaf set to go with the basic scroll backbones. https://southerncustomengraving.com/products.html

 

[AJB]

Thanks Allen. I actually live about 20 or so miles from Lane Zuelke. I may give him a call and see if I could drop by his shop and pick up a set.

 

[monk]

Allen and Monk,

Thank you for your replies. The knowledge and resources that are shared on this site inspired me to give engraving a try after decades of admiring the art of engraving.

I spent over a year reading thousands of post, saving images, and drawing before I picked up a graver. Now I am slowly accumulating equipment, and trying to translate all the information on this forum into usable skills.

Allen, castings are now on my list for future purchases.

Monk, I’ll concentrate more on creating an illusion of depth, rather than the measurement of physical depth.

well, if you get tthe castings as alan suggested, you'll see very little real depth on most of them.

 

[PS_Bond]

Follow-on question - in soft metals, like silver, I tend to go quite deep. It's how I was taught in hand push, anyway; my thinking is that in general fine shading & the likes won't last long on silver, so you want the cuts to be visible a decade or so down the line, even with heavy use.

Is there merit to this?

 

[AJB]

Thanks for the tip on silver engraving PS. I haven’t graduated past practice plates ( actually fender washers) yet, bit it makes sense that softer metals may need to be engraved to account for wear.

 

[silvermon]

Follow-on question - in soft metals, like silver, I tend to go quite deep. It's how I was taught in hand push, anyway; my thinking is that in general fine shading & the likes won't last long on silver, so you want the cuts to be visible a decade or so down the line, even with heavy use.

Is there merit to this?

Yes. I am a sterling manufacturer and have contracted many engravers over the years. In silver we typically use Western style engraving. The shading line aren't v-cut, rather vertical on one side of the cut and broad and shallow on the other. We used far less shading lines than gun engravers. I did contract one engraver, Rob Martin in Pasadena, CA, who managed to adapt gun engraving styles to sterling pens, shot glasses, and cigar tubes very nicely. It can be done. I think one of the reason it worked so well, was that all the items I had Rob engraving were circular.

 

[Chujybear]

I measured my engraving at some point along the way.
I was typically coming down about .3mm.

Actually just remembering, I hand an opportunity to do some measurements on a silver bracelet from about 1900. It was around .2 not accounting for any wear.