Inside ring engraving by Arnaud

Arnaud Van Tilburgh

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Messages
4,221
Location
Belgium
Pencil tutorial on easy inside ring lettering.
Introduction:
It is over 25 years I’m trying to do decent inside ring lettering.
I have seen hundreds of them during my goldsmith career but never came close to what I saw although I was convinced it shouldn’t be hard to do.
This kind of lettering was done before there were machines, and the machines made an end at this kind of lettering. Over 20 years ago I saw one in Antwerp who still did some hand lettering, no ballvise, no power hone, no power assist. Just a wooden block and a graver, a sort of flat one.
I have shown this kind of lettering here on the forum questioning about the how, but never got the right answer. You showed me nice roman lettering on inside rings, also cursive lettering, but never the “handwriting character lettering”
When I bought my GraverSmith, I thought it would be piece of cake now, but is wasn’t.
The last 2 days I only practiced using different gravers and graver geometry .And yes, all pieces of information I had brought me the solution.
And let me be clear, it is only for one type of lettering, the only kind of lettering that I saw on inside wedding bands.

Explaining the Tutorial:
The pencil design should speak more than a 1000 words but some extra information will help.
First of all, ONLY HAND PUSHING. Using a graver with extra lift (20° – 25°).
Could be a Bulino graver without a heel but extra lift, or any V graver that is less wide than 105°
I prefer an Traditional small flat hand graver, ½ mm wide. Ad a 20° “lift facet” (lift angle). Face 50°.
The length of the “lift facet” (long heel) is about 5-6mm.
I’m right handed so I only use the left tip of the flat graver to make just one kind of a cut, the hook!
Every cut is made from thin to wider (tapered)at the end. By using the left tip of the flat, the flat will cut a flare, that flare suggests the line is curved . At the end of that cut, the bottom, make a very small flared turn.
I use some Sam ALfano Transfer wax on silver and gold to draw the layout first with a pencil.
Make sure all letters are at 45°, not only does that look great, it is easier to cut and the letters are a bit bigger if you do lettering on the inside of a 3mm wide wedding ring.
Make the height of the lettering like a c e o u v w something between 1,5mm and 3,5 mm. smaller lettering is easier to do and looks better.
No cut will touch a neighbor. It is the eye that will fill in that what isn’t cut. If you try to connect everything, it will look like crap.
Start making all the cuts from top to bottom. 2 cuts for an a, one cut for an e, two cuts for an r etc…
Then you make all the cuts from bottom to top, also the small cut that will connect the letter a to the next one and the small cut at the bottom that connects the first HOOK cut with the next one. And so on.
The horizontal cut for the letter t, is made by pushing the graver from top, on the right tip of the graver, a bit forward and more to the left were it connects the first long HOOK cut.

I will work on a video tutorial ASAP.
I will also show you photos of my lettering. At the moment I make that much progress that I have to wait until I have one the best I can.

Arnaud

Click on the design to see it at full size to see and understand better.
 

Arnaud Van Tilburgh

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Messages
4,221
Location
Belgium
Here is one quick shot at home some lettering hand pushing on a Titanium ring



[video=youtube;gmHhcZGoy6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmHhcZGoy6A&feature=youtu.be[/video]

arnaud
 

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