Where to begin

Let me introduce myself. My name is Tony, I live in Lancaster, Ca. Thats in the high desert a little north east of L.A. I have a used Gravermeister, which I sent in for refurbishing and to get the higher speed kit installed. I have the 915 handpiece. I have 3 copies of James Meeks book and Ron smiths first book on scroll design, if I can find them. They are misplaced at the moment. I have a bunch of practice plates I bought from GRS. I have about 5 square gravers sharpened as per the GRS sharpening video but with no heels on 4 of them, that haven't been used yet. I just got Sams sharpening video and orders some more gravers to sharpen as he shows. A bunch of years back I bought a home study course from an engraver named Robert Maki on hammer and chisel engraving. He said the first thing to learn is to cut a straight line, so thats what I practice when I have time. Now for the dumb questions that have probably been asked many times here. I notice that on the practice plates I've seen here the surface looks sanded. Should I sand the mill surface off the practice plates before engraving, and if so, to what grit? Also, should I be trying to do only straight lines at first? I wish I could take a beginners course, but I just got the OK from my wife to take a course in making liner lock folding knives in October, so it will be a while till I can get the OK for another week away from home. By the way, I forge and make knives for a hobby now, but I've only done fixed blades till now, No folders yet. I'm glad I found this forum. There is a wealth of information here, and the tutorials are fantastic and will be great in helping one learn the art. Many thanks to all of you.

Welcome. I also got material from Robert Maki many years ago (wonder if he is still around?) and got about as good a feel as you can get for not being right there with him.

Finish your practice plates as you would any work you will be doing for a client. It helps to know what it will feel like to engrave it without any microscopic scales etc.

Hi Tony & welcome aboard

I finished all my practice plate surfaces with 600 grit wet n dry paper. Straight lines then curved lines at the same time. Don't worry your first plate will probabley look something like a butchers mess, everyone's first plate does. It'll take time for you to get used to the tool and the feel of it but just keep at it and you'll be fine.

Cheers
Andrew

Hello Tony and welcome to the cafe. As Andrew said, your first plates probably won't be too much to write home about, but keep them and when you compare your 4th, 10th, 20th etc. you will see the progress! When I first started the man who taught me had me do straight lines and then curves hooking left and curves hooking right. He was a big believer in being able to attack a curve both ways even though one way will feel more comfortable to you than the other. Post your practice plates especially if you have specific questions and someone here (probably many people) will be glad to tell you ways to improve and move along.

the surface finish should be 400- 800. but for practice, isn't real critical. also you want to break the glare. coat your plate with chinese white . i've also added powdered tempera to damar varnish. you want to layout straight and curved lines to practice following them. curves right and also left. do gentle curves at first. maybe the radius of a half dollar. when comfortable with that, tighten the radius a bit. in short order you'll be doin real tight curves. i'm assuming here that you have a ball vise. if you don't, it will be difficult to cut advanced curves, such as scroll. if you don't have a ball vise, perhaps you could find a way to mount a low profile vise on a lazy susan bearing. early on i used a bowling ball. it was cheap, very cheap, very crude, but i was flat broke, and guess what- the bowling ball vise worked till i could afford a magna block. to this day, i sometimes use the bowling ball vise. mostly for lightweight jewelry work ! btw while practicing the curves, when you start to feel comfortable doing them, slowly roll your graver outboard and about the middle of the cut, gradually roll back to about where you were when you began the cut. this will add some interest to the cuts, a continuosly variable width line.

monk said:

the surface finish should be 400- 800. but for practice, isn't real critical....
i'm assuming here that you have a ball vise. if you don't, it will be difficult to cut advanced curves, such as scroll.

Click to expand...

Actually 400 is enough for for a gun which is going to be blue, the bluing "take" better if the polish is not to high.
A fare as I know ball vise is typically American, I do not think they use them in Belgium or in Germany. I would add that a none ball vise will force the engraver to turn left and right since the vice will not turn 360 degrees and will actually become more proficient in both direction if he does not have the choice. I think that taking short cut when learning limit ones ability in the long run.

Thanks everyone. Thats the info I was looking for to get started. I do have a ball vise. Its the magna block. I bought the whole set up at once and kind of got ripped off by a knife making friend. He gets a lot for his knives. He traded a knife for a whole set up including scope from some one not interested in engraving any more. He already had a set up, but not a good scope. He told me what he had gotten and was asking 2K for it all. After I paid him he gave me all the stuff. What he did was he swapped scopes and gave me this crappy scope thats no good for engraving and kept the good scope for himself. So I basically got the Gravemiester, and ball vise and a bunch of gravers for 2K. I could of bought it all new for that price. Well it serves me right for trusting someone that I thought was a friend. But thats just the kind of person I am. Its not the first time trusting people has bit me in the butt, and probably won't be the last time. I should of asked more questions and asked to see everything first. I did buy an Omano scope. Its a clone of the Miejie(?), but its to much magnafication for just starting out so I'm not using it right now. Thanks again.