Remind me not to try fine engraving on cast brass

[rod]

Because it will not end up looking fine, just average.

However, it was worth a try. It would have been easier to clad the three faces in thin silver, and get some control over my tool point. Cast brass looks very good, surfaces sand up very smooth, but when you start to engrave, the internal granular structure is like digging into a gravel pit with a blunt shovel.

Our new grandson, Luke is now 4 months old, still too young to start using this fully working small plane ... not a toy. No he will not even get to chew on it, but it can sit on a shelf awaiting the discovery that all kids eventually come to, we are all tool makers and tool users... been doing it for couple of million years, or at least our extinct cousins gave us homo sapiens a head start.

This neat, chunky little working plane, made from rosewood, brass, and tool steel, can be bought as one of a kit of three planes from Harbor Freight, total cost for all three, about ten bucks. That is a deal!

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-piece-micro-brass-plane-set-97545.html#.UxpxleewKFg

So why not up the ante, and do your practice on these little objects. You may end up with a nice little gift for some one!

All cuts done with a flat, with just a few cuts using a tiny round.

The quick snapshots are premature, not quite all cleaned up, but I have to rush and do something else, so with apology...

Rod

 

[Roger Bleile]

Rod,

I was at Harbor Freight a few hours ago and saw those planes. Of course I thought about getting and engraving them, as if I don't have enough else to do. I'm glad I deferred until another time.

Nevertheless, you did a sweet job on the wee tool.

Roger

 

[monk]

not too shabby for such metal as it is.

 

[RDP]

Thanks for sharing this Rod, I have one of these planes to engrave, I bought mine from England a couple of years ago, no doubt that it will be the same material, I have seen them here in Australia now, I know what to expect when I cut it,
nice work on yours by the way,

Richard.

 

[sam]

When I first started engraving I would buy plain cast brass belt buckles by the dozen, and they cut similarly to what you describe - a blunt shovel in a gravel pit! I cut my teeth on that nasty brass and learned a lot in the process.

I think you did a nice job considering such a gritty and unpredictable material, and your grandson will love it!

 

[SamW]

Rod, if you remember the Waverly tuners I have engraved, those are cast bronze and miserable to cut, not even considering the 6 uprights. It would take deeeeep pockets to entice me to do that again! Boy, that aluminum sure cuts nice!! A very cute plane worth having...aren't grandsons neat?

 

[LVVP]

Rod,

Looks very nice and sensitive

 

[silverchip]

All you had to do was ask!!! Never again for me!!! I got suckered into engraving some cast silicone bronze tomahawks in my early days and that was just as bad!!!!!

 

[John P. Anderson]

I did this before I learned the difference between brass and silicon bronze.

I did 3 for the junior rifle club and a local gunsmith made and fitted the plates. It's thick, about 3/16", and was made from some "cushions" that are used in piston assemblies in locomotives. Havre's a railroad town. It doesn't really "cut" but it does carve okay. I'd try and carefully cut the letters and the graver would skid some direction and then dig in. I did better on the lions and the lettuce on the side as they were deeper relief and I found it would actually crave fairly well as long as you dug in and took a big bite. The lettering tended to wallow out. I'm not much of a letterer then or now.

I've have some brass plate that cuts almost as nice as copper.

John

 

[Southern Custom]

I butchered quite a few of those little planes years ago. They are nasty little buggers. Good thing I didn't know the difference at the time. Wasn't till I cut some nice naval brass that I realized the difference.

 

[rod]

Thanks for your input and sympathy spoken from experience, guys,

For an encore, I will silver clad the next one and see if the engraving will be more enjoyable.

best

Rod

 

[silverchip]

Best Idea yet, you learn fast for an old dog!!!!!!!

 

[John P. Anderson]

You did a great job.

 

[Marcus Hunt]

Very nice work Rod, I'm sure Luke will be over the moon with this plane in the future.

Just as an aside re brass. I was watching a rerun of an old Fred Dibnah program the other day. Fred was a steeplejack who became a UK tv personality back in the 70's/80's and has been dead for several years now; you guys in the US might see his type of program on your public device broadcast channels. Anyway, in this particular program he visited a bell foundry and one of the things that came to light was that there is no exact recipe for brass. Apparently it was all down to the individual guy who mixed the alloy and it was his experience that was able to reproduce the right mixture every time. This is probably why modern brass is so awful to cut because it's made to a recipe that anyone can follow rather than from the experience of the foundry man. Just a thought.