Few projects - please critique

2 weeks ago I finally got back to engraving, as one large project at work was finished.

Those memory sticks are made with super soft metal and seems that 'piddling' is the only technique that works on it. I tried to shade one, but it was horrible.

Knife.. oh, the knife. One thing is sure, I made the design too complicated for that size. And it's not nicely balanced either. I guess few more years of practice

But what do you think?

That knife looks really nice to me. I like it a lot, but then what do I know. Mack

The memory stick came out nice, but I see what you mean on the knife.

It's a great design - as long as you're looking at it with a magnifier. The first picture seems more like 'normal viewing distance' and it does seem to loose something there.

Over on the Lindsay forums Zernike AU is working on a knife design and to help him figure out which version he liked best he printed them off at life size and stuck them over the actual knife. Man does that really show some things! I've got a couple little knives in my 'to be engraved' pile and I'm going to do that with them - that will help not only with things like flow, it should also catch problems with the design being too complicated for the size.

Still, I'll bet most folks will never notice the 'problem' - they'll just see a really nice knife with some cool engraving.

Howdy Vilts,

Although I haven't the skill nor the knowledge to critique your work, I see something in your knife that I struggle with. The leaves on the top of the scroll near the pointed part of the bolster look like they were just placed there to fill a negative space. They don't look like any of the other leaves in your design (which I like VERY much). This is just my opinion and I hope that it does not offend you.

D.C.

As always Viljo you are doing amazing work for a beginner.

The memory stick looks fine to me, some cuts could be smoother but that’s practice to fix that

The are some areas on the knife that can be improved. By the numbers
1, these small leaves exist nowhere else in the design, so technically they are unbalanced being on that end. Although I suspicion you did not mean for them to be there, you got a little heavy handed on making the big leaf there and decided to make three leaves from what was left over. Nothing you can do to fix this except make some more small leaves out of big ones elsewhere but I would’nt in this case.
2, The line immediately above the 2 also looks like a mistake cut. To hide this, I would make the long white part of the backbone of the mainscroll that it cuts into two different leafs at that point.


4 directly above the point of 4 is too much white. recut one of the shade lines coming into this area and flare it into there to eliminate that white triangle


5, same thing as 4, Right whre the top of the 5 points to the right, there is too much white, recut one of the shade lines coming into this area and flare it into there to eliminate that white triangle

6, this whole are needs crosshatched, to balance the dark areas at 2-3-4 and between 1-3
7, I would consider adding crosshatching the leave on the outside of the back bone on the main scroll to give the backbone more definition

Not to disagree with what the Master's say but I like both. The knife may be tight but it still is nice
Eric

vilts said:

Knife.. oh, the knife. One thing is sure, I made the design too complicated for that size. And it's not nicely balanced either. I guess few more years of practice

But what do you think?

Click to expand...

Learning to recognize where it could use improvement is more important than any critique you get from outside. You're doing great.

Hi Vilts,

The Memory stick is really nice. The knife looks Good also. Thanks for showing your work. Very impressive..

JT

Looks Great, You're to good! Dwayne

As I'm a novice to, I learn from the critique from the masters

arnaud

Wow, thanks all, especially Scott, for your comments. You hit the head with your 7 points (tho I don't see number 3 ). I just hope that next time I can remember all that is said here.

D.C. I agree with those little pointy leaves at upper part. Actually they weren't like that on original design, but as I saw how tiny the details will be I simplified that part.

Ron, do you think this will ever stop - that you look at your work and actually think that "Man, I really am good at this". I just read a bunch of the GMM newsletters and saw the dies you make. It's really awesome to me, but are you satisfied with it too?

Vilts, No, it never stops for me. The stuff I have done where I can think --"Boy, I really nailed that one" are few and far between. I'm my own worst critic. The cool part about doing die work is that I can always go back and improve earlier work by making a positive hub, re-working that, and making a new die that can be further re-worked. In that regard, all of my dies are a work in progress somewhat.

And don't get me wrong about my earlier statement. Never disregard the comments and advice from all the masters on this site. I've seen vast improvement in your work since I started visiting this site, which proves you're actually listening to the advice, and your self critique shows you have an eye for it which will only get better from here.

I had a music teacher one time that told me "I can only teach you how to teach yourself". What he meant was that I was not going to acquire skills by osmosis. It was up to me to do the work. I'm going to listen to my own advice this time and get back to a normal work schedule finally. -- Back to the bench!! ;-)