How nessasary is pneumatic engraver for a beginner?

[terrapinstation]

push & hand sharpening is the foundation Imo. You will have to commit manyyyy hours learning to cut & draw. For what you want to do a optivisor will work fine. The % of folks that actually have a career hand engraving is pretty small. You’ll finally decide if $1000’s in extra equipment is warranted.
kent

I hear that! I don't think I want my entire career to be engraving focused, but I would like to have it as skill that I can incorporate into my jewelery. I have a background in drawing which is nice! Thank you so much for the help. it sounds like from what you and others said that beginning with hand engraving is the way to go!

 

[terrapinstation]

I learned engraving without a direct teacher, only with help from the engravers cafe. It would have been impossible / quite a lot harder and slower without air assist. Those systems, properly set up, make the start a lot easier. The same goes for a precise sharpening system. As a beginner, you probably could not cope with too many variables. So a sharp graver with consistent angles and heel width is a big help. The air assist requires almost no force to move the graver trough the metal, so a beginner could concentrate on controlling the angle of attack, leaning the graver and moving the workpiece to achieve the desired curves and lines. I use air assist also for sterling silver, and leave it aside only for shading and crosshatching.

Before I started engraving, I used hand-sharpened hand push engravers for stone setting (no channel setting, of course). That did work well, biut it did not help me to learn line engraving. The stone setting cuts are way to short…

Cheers

Ralf

thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it. I'm in the same boat of not having a direct teacher. My mentor // boss is able to give me some pointers, but he is not an engraver by any means, and is mostly a setter.

 

[terrapinstation]

push woek shouldn't require a lot of "strain or muscle" if your engraving is done at a normal depth-- just a few "thou" deep. pushing deeply, yes, problems will arise. on deep work, a slip can dang near amputate yer left thumb. i didn't read this in a book, i discovered this concept the hard way.

noted! thank you. If my past has taught me anything, I won't truly learn that lesson until a graver is stuck in my hand lol!

 

[terrapinstation]

Just to add to all the previous comments; I was taught hand/push engraving at college, and also did an apprenticeship at a manufacturing jewellers. My view for what it’s worth; invest in 4 - 5 gravers of different shapes/widths - square/lozenge, flat, round, get a decent sharpening system - GRS/Lindsey (each have their fans) and spend some time getting used to sharpening and polishing your gravers consistently - you can do simply with oil and Arkansas stones by hand, but you need a lot of practice and patience to get consistent, an Optivisor, a couple of sand bags and a hand vice, good quality dividers - Moore & Wright are good in the UK, a ruler and a scriber. Some engraving copper sheet to practice on (T N Lawrence are good), and then some brass as you get more practiced & confident. Copper cuts a lot like silver and 18ct (really nice), brass cuts a lot like 9ct (can drag a bit and rag around curves).
All a personal view, feel free to use/ignore.

Thank you so much for the tip! especially about the metals - that is super super helpful. So much appreciated!

 

[terrapinstation]

as above: the tool of choice matters little. what does matter is determination to prevail with practice using whatever is on hand. learning control with practice is what leads to success. all the while, it's nearly mandatory to learn drawing/ design skills. a competent execution in metal is for naught if the drawing was lousy. sadly, it took me a long time to reaize this.

luckily even before I started making jewelery // thinking about engraving I have a background in drawing and design. Thanks for the tip about the tools!

 

[terrapinstation]

Pneumatic is not "necessary".

With pneumatic you're paying for 1.) a GREATLY reduced learning curve, and 2.) CONTROL that you may never experience with hand push.

I send my students home on Friday engraving beautiful designs on steel plates. If I were teaching hand push, we would still be on straight lines and curves.

Many of us learned by traditional methods and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It boils down to how quickly you want to get up to speed.

I hear that! thank you. Is the same learning curve as intense when using softer fine metals?

and I hear that last bit also! I am absolutely down to put the time in, especially considering that I am still dealing with some jewelery specific expenses, and would probably rather purchase a microscope for my home bench before a pnuemetic engraver. I really appreciate the advice // input!

 

[terrapinstation]

I 100% concur with Sam. It’s definitely not necessary and if you learned the “old ways” you’re not dependent on things like compressors, etc. Engraving is thousands of years old and it’s only really in the past 20-30 year’s pneumatic engraving has become a thing. If you choose the old manual techniques though, be prepared for a much steeper learning curve.

Would you say that the learning curve means that you have an advantage later down the line in terms of control // skills?

Thank you for the response!

 

[terrapinstation]

push & hand sharpening is the foundation Imo. You will have to commit manyyyy hours learning to cut & draw. For what you want to do a optivisor will work fine. The % of folks that actually have a career hand engraving is pretty small. You’ll finally decide if $1000’s in extra equipment is warranted.
kent

unrelated - do you have a suggestion for which gravers I should start out with?

 

[Chujybear]

Not necessary. A workholding solution is the best first hurdle