New old world fan

[thinair33]

Hello all,

My name is James. I am new to the site. I have become an addict.
Yes, I already admit it. It all started with my Winchesters. I became intrigued with the early "highly finished arms" once available from Winchester. I could not believe the amount of talent and planning that went in to the early Henry, and later Winchester, arms engravers.

So, I started searching the internet for information on these guys. To tell you the truth this art gets very little respect. It saddened me to look for books at the book stores. There is very little available to order. I have been grabbing everything available on different types of scroll, etc.. I found a book by L.D. Nimschke that had a limited run in 1992......for $300. Ouch!!

All this brought me here, and I thank you all for some really interesting ideas and techniques. I plan to enjoy myself , and oneday make some money doing this. There is so much talent to learn from here that I am getting into trouble with my wife for being online so much. She thinks I have a girlfriend!!

I am trying out Corel to learn some design techniques, and learning scroll design anyway I can. Everyones work is such inspiration to me. I may ask a few questions so please be patient.

By the way I was in manufacturing for 25 years and am now a mobile tool dealer. If you need info on tools I have tons of resources.

Thanks
James Ricks

[kcrutcher]

Welcome James

Check out my tutorial on using Corel for designing an engraving project (Vector Drawing With Coreldraw) especially page 4. Take a look at the example flower parts. Once you have them as vector drawings you can put them together to make many stylized flowers. The drawing In the lower left is a tool for drawing scrolls. Once you have a scroll you can make copies, Node Edit it to any shape you like.

Kenneth Crutcher

[thinair33]

Kenneth,
I sent you a private message before after reading a tutorial you had on corel. I have a question. Did you scan the shotgun receiver and then run a trace on the image? I scanned my cell phone a kind of messed with it. I am using a 15 day trial of corel x4 to see how I like it. I might as well buy it on ebay as all of these seem to be the same.

Thanks
James

[kcrutcher]

James

I did scan the receiver.

I Imported the scan into Corel, then used the line tool to draw around the edges and high points of the scan.

I then used the node edit tool to convert to curves where needed, pushed or pulled the lines to match the scan (similar to editing the flower demo).

Sorry If I took a long time to get back to you (I had computer problems for about a week)

I thought I had a Virus.

Turned out to be dust built up on CPU. (would overheat and shut down just when I was doing a virus check).

The processor works very hard during a virus check temp go's from 90 degrees F to 115 degrees and shut down.

Had me going around in circles for a while.

Let me know how you like X4 I am using X3.

Kenneth Crutcher

[thinair33]

Well so far corel is okay. I just went to Office Depot and saw X4 for 399. Ebay has it for 196.00.
I just received "The art of engraving", got it off amazon. I plan to dive into it. I also purchased an epson printer to try the transfer solution Steve recommends. I think the same ink is used in this unit. Seems to be "Dura Brite" ink that makes the difference. I'll try it.

I know the feeling with the virus. I lost all my data in quickbooks, 3 years, when I updated the program and scrambled to get a backup to open. Even tech support couldn't get it. I figured it out and wrapped up last year this weekend. Wow what a scare.

James Ricks