never engraved - best way to highlight script on blued metal

Big Ed · Jan 15, 2015

a plan

Ok, after receiving great advice from the good folks on this list, and reviewing various tutorials, I've decided on the following tentative approach:

1. Buy starter tools: #36 flat/#0 onglette/#0 square gravers, chisel handle, and small hammer.
2. Find a script font on the internet that I like and download it.
3. Use computer graphics software to play with letters til I get the size and layout that I want.
4. Print and transfer to a practice plate. Mount plate on weighted block of wood.
5. Practice engraving the letters using the following approach:
- trace lines using square graver.
- cut swallowtail profile in single lines using onglette.
- cut out area between double lines using flat graver and undercut with onglette.
- anneal, draw, and hammer in copper wire, then sand and polish.
6. Once I get the results I want on the practice plate, sand off the pantograph letters on my grip cap, engrave per step 5 above, inlay with 24K gold, and rust blue.

Am I on track? Anyone have any additional advice before I start slinging steel?

Ron Spokovich · Jan 15, 2015

Big Ed, you're on the right track. Pantograph engraving, like with my New Hermes, would only give you the results from what is called 'drag engraving', by some. Once you get a ton of practice under your belt, you can make the lettering any size you want provided it's not too small or large. When you see the right size, you'll know it. A gold inlay would work OK, but isn't for the faint of heart. Match the surface finish of your finished grip cap to that of the rest of the rifle. Also, you need to come up to speed on screw slot alignment, as from the photo they don't show alignment with one another. Might just turn out to be a nice job. Good luck!

Big Ed · Jan 17, 2015

First try

Always been one to jump in, so I made myself a square graver today and tried my hand at a practice plate. Here is my first attempt at a monogram. I'm sure it is a heinous abomination to you skilled engravers, but to me it was a real revelation when the tool actually cut the metal the way it does on the tutorials. After I practice it about 500 times, I should be ready to do it on my grip cap.

dlilazteca · Jan 18, 2015

hand pushed? or hammer and chisel?

Saludos,
Carlos

KCSteve · Jan 18, 2015

Yeah, that's not so pretty. But who cares at this point?
Sounds to me like you may have caught the bug.
Isn't it just so cool the way the metal wants the line?

If you're hand pushing cut a lot shallower and keep going over the line to get depth.

However you're doing it, fall back to doing some straight lines and maybe some curves - they're so you can get control over that line. Once you can get a line, then you can start making it do something.

Marrinan · Jan 18, 2015

KCSteve is right on the mark. Fill the plate with straight lines aiming at control of depth/width and straightness. Sorry you have to crawl before you run. Fred

Big Ed · Jan 18, 2015

Hammer and chisel. Actually that prompts a question I had: is a wood handle acceptable for a chisel?

SamW · Jan 19, 2015

Wood handles are probably the norm for H & C. Metal handles often have a thin piece of leather glued to the back end to absorb some of the shock. Or a wooden hammer is used.

Big Ed · Jan 20, 2015

OK, thanks. I made the graver with 1/8" square key stock and mounted it in a hardwood dowel handle. Next I will make a point graver and a flat graver. Picked up a cheap opti-visor, a small ball peen hammer, and some clamp lights.

mtgraver · Jan 20, 2015

Ed, if you are using key stock you may want to upgrade to a lathe tool bit in 1/8". Key stock is typically soft whereas the lathe bit is tool steel HSS. I recommend "Momax" as a good one for H/C work but any should work while you're learning. High carbon steel is fine for push gravers but need to be tempered properly not so with HSS. Good luck in your journey.
Mark

Big Ed · Jan 20, 2015

Mark, thanks, I'll look into that. Price is right at about $3 a blank online. I used key stock because that's what the hardware store had when I wandered in on a lark. I hardened the graver after shaping it by heating the tip cherry red and quenching it twice in water. I dunked it about half an inch, waited til it stopped boiling, then pulled it out, waited a few seconds for the tip to reheat, then dropped the whole piece in. I read somewhere that the reheat and second dunking would temper the hardened tip and make it less brittle. Dunno if I did it right, but it was still cutting well at the end of my first practice plate, and I don't see any visible nicks or chips on the edge. The practice plate was mild weldable steel with mill scale still on it.

never engraved - best way to highlight script on blued metal

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