my latest nickel

[Ray Cover]

I have been working on a couple of pretty intense bulino projects the past few weeks so I took a break to do something different and this is what I came up with.

The subject was a union calvary officer with a gold hat band and a gold strip on his shoulder bar.

I will put it on ebay tomorrow to see what it brings.

 

[jlseymour]

Very nice Ray, Good luck on eBay...
Jerry

 

[lylekelley3]

I love the roman nose and the apparent tilt of his head, great perspective.
Good job!

Lyle

 

[finn]

The coin has a flare of its own, and certainly has character.

Nice job.

 

[threefingerdave]

Ray,
that is very nice
great transformation from an Indian to an officer
I can almost feel how tired he is
I really like your fields
Dave

 

[Ray Cover]

This was kind of a "take a breather" project. I needed to step back from the tedium of my current project and do something a bit more relaxed and loose. This one was carved more as a "have fun thing" rather than to see how much detail I could stuff into it or how accurate I could be with everything. I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Ray

 

[Ray Cover]

Thanks Dave,

On the fields I basically rough them down with a chisel, then I took a punch in my palm control with a tungsten piston and punched it flat and smooth. Then stoned it.

As a matter of fact most of this nickel was done that way. Roughing out with a chisel and then forming the final shape with punches.

Ever since I saw that practice plate Sam had done using the punches I have been playing with that technique and I find, as malleable as they are, it works really well for the nickels.

I used gritty toothpaste and a toothbrush to get the final finish. My beadblaster is down right now so I did not get to beadblast it first like I normally do. Therefore its a little shinier than normal for me.

Ray

 

[sdcoxx]

Hello Ray,
Nice Nickel....
I appreciate your sharing the details of your engraving process on this coin...
What a wonderful way to spend your breaktime.
Thanks,
Stephen

 

[BrianPowley]

Nice stuff and I'm envious. I've started playing with nickle carving recently and it takes some getting used to...especially smoothing out the background. Nickle sure is a lot different than steel.

 

[threefingerdave]

Ray,
I missed the post about the punches
do you just use them straight up and down and punch the metal ans sort of move it around?
thanks in advance
I will look for the original post
Dave

 

[threefingerdave]

Ray,
I found the post on Sam's Punches
thank you
Dave

 

[NevadaBlue]

Ray, that is very neat. I like the transformation. Thanks for posting it!

Hey, I can't find Sam's thread on punches, could someone please post a link?

 

[Ray Cover]

Thanks guys,

I am really liking this punch technique. I have been playing with it for a while and I am comfortable enough with it to try it on a knife.

Ray

 

[threefingerdave]

Nevadablue
here is the post i found
http://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=321
Dave

 

[Ray Cover]

Thats the one.

Thanks Dave. I dropped the ball on that one.

Ray

 

[Mike Cirelli]

Looks good Ray. Really like the hat and hair. Hope it makes a nice payday for you. The nickels do burnish and chase well but sometimes to much and you run into flaking.

 

[finn]

looks like i will need to make a few new tools tomorow . some punches to try this out .