Christopher Malouf
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Hello folks,
I post this with a little reservation because only the slide is completed. This slide has the more extensive and detailed coverage as other areas will only be accented (like the end of the barrel and trigger guard for instance)
I've mentioned this before regarding the hardness. 415 cast hardened stainless. Brutal. It makes those North American Arms minis seem like warm butter. Here's where I would normally complain how the sharpening time alone exceeds the agreed price. (Ha!...Looks I just did!!)
This was a great excerise in broken graver engraving. Keep cutting deeper till that Carbalt graver just won't cut no more then clean up the cuts with a freshly sharpened tip. Shading was a different story ... no room for a broken tip when doing that.
I used a Lindsay Carbalt with a 105 degree widened tip (from 90), a 65 degree face and a short heel. Dubbing the tip made little difference. This minimized breakage while not producing a cut much different than a stock 90 degree angle.
One little handy-dandy modification was to my stippling tool. Rather than use a 4 sided tapered point, I doubled it to 8. A tapered, octagonaly sharpened tip rarely broke, and performed very well because I didn't have the corners of the 4 sided tip to damage the surrounding work in the tight spaces around the background.
I thought maybe I was the only nut to cut into one of these but it looks like another engraver ... John Dommers beat me to it. His engraving is shown on Seecamp's site here ... http://seecamp.com/1LWSTRY2b.jpg
Well, I'll try to answer any questions ... please feel free to pick it apart.
For any future Seecamps that someone may ask me to engrave, I will make only one more investment in equipment .... I good pair of running shoes so I can run for cover.
Regards,
Chris
I post this with a little reservation because only the slide is completed. This slide has the more extensive and detailed coverage as other areas will only be accented (like the end of the barrel and trigger guard for instance)
I've mentioned this before regarding the hardness. 415 cast hardened stainless. Brutal. It makes those North American Arms minis seem like warm butter. Here's where I would normally complain how the sharpening time alone exceeds the agreed price. (Ha!...Looks I just did!!)
This was a great excerise in broken graver engraving. Keep cutting deeper till that Carbalt graver just won't cut no more then clean up the cuts with a freshly sharpened tip. Shading was a different story ... no room for a broken tip when doing that.
I used a Lindsay Carbalt with a 105 degree widened tip (from 90), a 65 degree face and a short heel. Dubbing the tip made little difference. This minimized breakage while not producing a cut much different than a stock 90 degree angle.
One little handy-dandy modification was to my stippling tool. Rather than use a 4 sided tapered point, I doubled it to 8. A tapered, octagonaly sharpened tip rarely broke, and performed very well because I didn't have the corners of the 4 sided tip to damage the surrounding work in the tight spaces around the background.
I thought maybe I was the only nut to cut into one of these but it looks like another engraver ... John Dommers beat me to it. His engraving is shown on Seecamp's site here ... http://seecamp.com/1LWSTRY2b.jpg
Well, I'll try to answer any questions ... please feel free to pick it apart.
For any future Seecamps that someone may ask me to engrave, I will make only one more investment in equipment .... I good pair of running shoes so I can run for cover.
Regards,
Chris
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