New guy

[mpounders]

Hello all. I'm primarily a wood carver, but I hope to pick up some techniques and ideas from the great work I have seen here. I would love to get into engraving, but I suspect my wife would not appreciate another hobby with expensive tools! I'll probably just look and lurk a lot, until I work up my courage to try an engraving!

[SVD]

Ah but would your wife appreciate some custom jewelry?

Welcome to the forum!

[Damien Connolly]

Don't know the stats, but even today its a fair bet that most engraving is done using hand tools only. If you're as keen as you have to be, then don't let the lack of power tools get in your way. A hundred bucks worth of gravers or blanks, a home made hammer and tool handles, and some sort of vise is all that is needed to do world class engraving. Consider that all of Winston Churchill's wonderful engraving is done using a fifty dollar optivisor, as does Martin Strolz, and the Italians use a hand held loupe when using the graver.

Join the Firearms Engravers Guild, soak up their excellent "how to" manual. Buy James Meek's book, and buy Florid Victorian Ornament (Dover Publications). Read these books deeply. Try to fully understand them as they contain most of what you will need to know.

The thrust of all this, is that engraving is about perseverance and self critique, not so much the tools. Draw as often as you can, seriously, with the aim of keeping your design skills abreast of your ability to excecute them. Even moderately well cut second rate artwork is, in the end....just that.

There is no more rewarding skill to grapple with, so embrace it as a passion, and have fun!

Damien