Mirror image issue

[MARLON]

Closing in on having my first respectable piece ready for a critique.

However, I sure could use some advice on getting an "already cut" scroll pattern mirrored across my piece. I have tried a smoke pull and sticking a second peice of scotch transparent (frosted) tape to it, but the adhesive kind of split between the two pieces of tape when I pulled them apart.

Are there any better techniques I could try?

 

[Ron Smith]

Hi Marlon, You used to be able to make good mirror transfers with finger print ink, but I think they are putting drying agents in it nowadays, but add a slight tough of vaseline to it and you can get it to work. Here is the process. take a piece of tape and tape it down to an empty spot where you won't be getting your hands ,elbows, etc. in it (It is messy stuff). Get a dab of ink on your finger and swirl it around on the tape to spread it out. Just very lightly touch the vaseline and mix it into the ink. Pat it onto the surface of the engraving, put the tape down and pres it down everywhere. Now before you take it off, dust around on the sticky side with talcom powder, baby powder, or such. This serves as a release agent and now you can put another piece of tape onto that and get hyour mirror image. Todays finger print ink doesn't work as good as it used to and you will have to play with it a bit to get the right amount of ink and vaseline mixture, and how much to pat on the engraving. Good luck!
Ron S

 

[SamW]

Marlon, along these same lines, I use a very fine black powder that is used to make epoxy black. I smear the powder into the cuts and use 3/4 inch transparent tape to lift it, then just put the tape to tape and get the mirror image. I use bowstring wax on the area getting the transfer, wiped on in a thin layer. I then very lightly scribe the design onto the steel. You will want the area polished to a worn 600 grit finish so you can scribe VERY lightly and still be able to see it and burnish out any mistakes easily. A very fine talcom powder will work but I haven't been able to find any around here. Sam

 

[FANCYGUN]

Marlon
Here is what I am doing for this.What Ron and Sam said works out well and Ron is correct about the fingerprint ink as of late. So what I have been doing is make a smoke pull of the engraved half of thepiece. That is you soot up the engraving with a candle and make a print of it using transparent tape. Now I have an impression of what I want to duplicate. I then scan it into my computor and invert the print. Meaning i turn the white line image with a black background into a black line image on a white background. I now just print this out on a transparancy and apply it to the metal with Tom Whites Transfer solution. I do the same thing if I need to duplicate a pattern as well. It actually works faster and easier than it sound here and now I also have a copy to use at any time down the road in my computor
Marty

 

[Dave London]

Marlon
I have been useing Speedball oil base printers ink as suggested by John B for filing the engraving this works for transfers also> I use damar varnish

 

[FANCYGUN]

Marlon
Attached is a sample of a smoke pull and then the inverted image that I use for transfering. You can use the same technique for mirror images and "flip" the image for opposite sides etc. I will also make a pull of the engraving when it is shaded so I can compare one side of a piece to the other as i shade so I dont get carried away and do two different things.
Marty

 

[D.DOUGLAS]

Marty, Do you do this with the photo shop program? Doug

 

[FANCYGUN]

I am using Photoshop 7.0 to play with the images..Other similar programs can work for the same thing. I also use these pulls to help me scale and layout my game scenes on a piece. I'm just finding the past few years that the inks I have beenusing in the past for transfers are becoming too oily and slippery to get a good image. I like the old "tacky" inks. They transfered better for me. Whats nice about using the computor is.I can save all these images and aslo print them larger so i can reference them while engraving a whole lot easier
Just my way of doing things the way it has evolved
Marty