My jewelry Apprentice engraving

[paul66]

Hi all, for those that dont know me I am 42 years old and have been in the jewellery retail trade for 24 years, in 2003 i went to trade school, to learn jewellery making as this side has always interested me, I felt like a kid again, only I loved learning all the new skills, part off the learning was an introduction to engraving.

You don't see a lot of beginner work on this forum and with some of engraving displayed here I know I feel a bit nervous displaying my pieces here.
BUT IT WAS BECAUSE of my first work I became more interested in engraving, There had to be easier way than I was taught, there must be better techniques ,better tools or ways to use them, and so after my trade courses finished I slowly researched, bought books ,read up on techniques and discovered the wealth of information on the net and in particular this web site, I didnt practice any real engraving (apart what I use in setting ), but it was never for from my mind.

This has lead me to just recently to purchase a airgraver and other equipment, so I can finally start practicing some of what I have learnt, and progress into something
I dont mind showing, but thats for the future

This is my past,
The following 10 plates (brass and copper) shows shows the progression that was taught over two part weeks during my last year at trade school.

This was all push engraved, mostly with a (blunt) flat graver, we didnt know any good transfer methods, no magnification (till the end), pieces were held on a plate with setters wax, and you turned your graver hand not your work , most of the time I was plowing metal not engraving, and yet I was having fun and even getting better I think (you be the judge)

(sorry about the photos, Its quite hard to take a close, in focus picture of a shiny surface )
I now have more appreciation for those who can take a good photo

Here they are,

Plate 1 First practice cuts, using a flat graver




Plate 2 more of the same





Plate 3 scribe a design and try and cut it




Plate 4 First time Tried a Square graver, wow this is starting to work



Plate 5 Cutting this copper with the flat i had was a BITC#@% and took nearly all day, hurt my hand and the slips I had caught my finger several times, the metal seemed only to want to chip away, glade to go home




Plate 6 My hand still hurt from the day before, but I saw this on the library computer ,looked like a great easy doodle all in one continuous cut, (mine took closer to 60 80 again the metal only wanted to chip away not cut , this sort of thing makes you want to give up.



Plate 7 I was happy engraving this , although the letters were only free hand scribed on, they cut really really easy, did the whole thing in about an hour






Plate 8 Again easy to engrave, was just something to fill in the rest of the day




Plate 9 The next pieces were done on our last days of our last week of our trade school for our apprentice,They liked to finish off with something big.
About this time a harry potter was released,and I had this design from the front of the book I wanted to try and cut. I tried a different transfer method that worked way better also used a head visor (wow I could see where to engrave ) also the square graver seemed to have just the right angles and cut the whole thing without breaking just a quick polish now and then, was quite happy with the result and a good warm up for the final piece.





Plate 10 This was the final piece of engraving ,and the final piece of work for the year, took a long time to transfer the letters, But It was the first time I printed it on the computer first onto tracing paper, same with the dragon .Cut the whole thing with a head magnifier , it sure is easier being able to see the line, still had a lo of trouble cutting the letters with a flat, but i got there, and didn't have to many slips.



Well thats my First work engraving. Hope it gives some comfort to any new to be engraver, and an idea into someone else's beginnings.

Paul

[SVD]

Paul

You can really see the improvement from plate to plate. Did you have a system for sharpening or was it freehand? Sounds like your flat graver may not have been sharpened quite right but it's hard to say.

Boy are you going to love your AirGraver!

The only thing that could make life better is adding a microscope - you can see pretty darn well with a good visor but with a scope!

Looking forward to your future postings!

[paul66]

Hi KCSteve
our system for sharpening :(

The way we were taught to shape a flat graver was to grind a curve on the whole bottom of the grave with a grinding wheel then emery papers, trying to keep it flat with a gentle curve or belly, then the face was cut at 45, by hand on a stone. this gave you a heel along the whole length of the graver, so in theory you would never need to sharpen it again, you only have to sharpen the face occasionally.
In practice most of us got the angle wrong, with too high or low lift each with its own problems, especially for a beginner who doesn't know about such things.
Our teacher didn't believe just a flat graver with a small heel would work, and believed a square graver would not work as well, one of the advantages of being an older student, I just tried it any way. All the later plates were engraved with these newer engravers

Still I treated it all as a learning exercise

Paul

[SVD]

I'd call that freehand even though you had a defined method.

Try Steve's sharpening system - it's dead simple and will give you the same point every time. I believe your instructor's opinion on flats and squares - if sharpened freehand.

[bervin]

I like the progression. you can see a definite improvement plate to plate. What kind of time frame begging to end did they take place. Is this a stander trade school curriculum? I've been thinking of getting some training. My experience is of interest at the moment. a little structure will be helpful. Hope you don't mind but I am going to try and copy your plates and see if I can figure it out. Thanks for posting bervin :yesnod:

[paul66]

Hi Bervin

The engraving curriculum ran over two seperate weeks for 5 or 6 days in total.
This WAS the standard trade jewellery training in australia for many years, but I believe they have changed the course
If you can get any training experience it will shorten your learning curve soo much,
and get you quicker into designing and layouts, and enjoying cutting your designs

Enjoy the Plates

Paul