grumpyphil
Elite Cafe Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2011
- Messages
- 106
Hi All-
Been reading here now for some years and practicing practicing. I've been cutting and pondering depth of cut now for some time and wondering how one should judge that depth. I've made my share of unintended skips, scratches and gouges and have some understanding how even the slightest of them can take hours and more to make disappear. So my first question is how do you decide how deep to cut? On a nice smoothed but not polished piece of steel I've made cuts with only the weight of my Classic handpiece with lines so close to another you could not see them individually without high magnification that work perfectly for fine shading. I've also made lines as deep as I could with a 120 graver and they look good too but are obviously a lot more work. I guess what I'm trying to find is some middle ground, some average to work above and below and I'm not really sure how to quantify that.
This leads me to my second question. I'm working entirely in steel but experimenting with many different types. This may have to do with my technique or lack of it. I've noticed that no matter the particular material and even though I'm getting a nice clean chip, there is a slight "ripping" on both sides at the top of the furrow that is created by the graver. I can only see this at fairly high magnification but a little rub with and ultra fine abrasive gets rid of it and really has the effect of clarifying the cuts even to the unaided eye. Is this normal or is my technique faulty in some way? I have absolutely no doubt about the sharpness of my gravers. Sharp and polished they are.
My last question is about Intaglio. I realize most of you here are more interested in gun, knife and jewelry engraving but I'm interested in engraving for print making. I want to cut plates in steel for this purpose but I've been able to find very little information about this.What I have found has been very specific to banknote type work and not really applicable. If anyone knows of any resources regarding this, I'd appreciate being pointed to it.
Thanks for your help and sorry for being so long-winded.
Been reading here now for some years and practicing practicing. I've been cutting and pondering depth of cut now for some time and wondering how one should judge that depth. I've made my share of unintended skips, scratches and gouges and have some understanding how even the slightest of them can take hours and more to make disappear. So my first question is how do you decide how deep to cut? On a nice smoothed but not polished piece of steel I've made cuts with only the weight of my Classic handpiece with lines so close to another you could not see them individually without high magnification that work perfectly for fine shading. I've also made lines as deep as I could with a 120 graver and they look good too but are obviously a lot more work. I guess what I'm trying to find is some middle ground, some average to work above and below and I'm not really sure how to quantify that.
This leads me to my second question. I'm working entirely in steel but experimenting with many different types. This may have to do with my technique or lack of it. I've noticed that no matter the particular material and even though I'm getting a nice clean chip, there is a slight "ripping" on both sides at the top of the furrow that is created by the graver. I can only see this at fairly high magnification but a little rub with and ultra fine abrasive gets rid of it and really has the effect of clarifying the cuts even to the unaided eye. Is this normal or is my technique faulty in some way? I have absolutely no doubt about the sharpness of my gravers. Sharp and polished they are.
My last question is about Intaglio. I realize most of you here are more interested in gun, knife and jewelry engraving but I'm interested in engraving for print making. I want to cut plates in steel for this purpose but I've been able to find very little information about this.What I have found has been very specific to banknote type work and not really applicable. If anyone knows of any resources regarding this, I'd appreciate being pointed to it.
Thanks for your help and sorry for being so long-winded.