Here are some of my recent practice's, and a couple of them are an try at Sam's style of shading. Comments welcome. Also was playing around with a new white box that I built, for the pictures.
That's coming along very nicley!!! I really like your rosettes. Keep at it as practice makes perfect. Have a try at a small project like a pendant or something. They can be quite stimulating to do.
The white box you've built is working well as the photos look good. I'm not sure what software you are using but in the programe that you use for your photos...........see if there is a "sharpen" feature or button. That can sometimes make the lines a lot crisper.
Powderhorn - Like Andrew said it might be time to start on some pendants. By engraving an object that you know someone will want to keep and possibly show off to others will make you pay attention to details. Some small things that I would look at are consistent border widths and just a little more smoothness to the scroll. I find that designs that have symmetry in them are difficult to do. The rosettes look good. Hope you can make it up to Reno the end of January.
Your Canon PowerShot A570 IS is capable of far better results than you are getting
your pictures are flat and out of focus
leads me to believe your light box is too weak and you are exposing wrong
try taking your samples outside and shoot them onceagain for a comparison of imagery
i think you will see the difference