Black powder bag button

[scott99]

Well here is a button for my possibles bag, there is a small ring on the back to attach it to the bag.It was cut starting with a square 90/15 degree graver and the rest of the stock was removed with flat gravers mostly about .020 to .030 wide. The metal is .125 thick and 1 inch in diameter. Measuring from the top surface the deepest cutting is about .062 deep. The graver marks were removed with silicon carbide flour and wooden sticks shaped for the purpose. The edge was left as cut because my wife said it "sparkles in the sun".

Also I am incuding a small Nesuke mask I carved.Not engraving but I thought I would toss it in. It is carved from Boxwood with ivory eyes and fangs, the pupils are inlayed ebony. The size of the carving is 3/4 inch tall not including the siver attatchment ring.
The ivory comes from piano keys and an old ivory billiard ball.

Any comments or critique or comments ar very welcome.

scott99

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Both looks great to me Scott, seems you wear a hat while making the photo, nice portrait as well. It seems you smoke too and wear a ring.

arnaud

 

[thughes]

Scott,
Very cool, I wish I could think of stuff like that.

Todd

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Any comments or critique or comments ar very welcome.

Scott,

I think the shade lines on the button would look better if you aimed them so they would converge in the center. They seem to "point" in random directions.

Doc

 

[scott99]

Hi, I did have trouble with the lines because of the relief of the surfaces. What I finaly did was using a straight edge I drew lines on each petal that crossed the center and then also met with its opposing petal. Then I kept to that guide causing the line to be straight. I do agree that it may have well looked better with convergence.

Thanks for the help

scott99

 

[Brian Marshall]

They both look great. I'm usually partial to the metalwork because I know how long something like that takes.

How long did the netsuke take to do?


Brian

 

[Marrinan]

I like the flower. When things are enlarged so far beyond the human eye we often are more critical. Your Netsuke is really good. Fred

 

[scott99]

HI, that Mask was carved (shaved to the netsuke community) off and on for a month, I really don't know a specific time for the carvings. I carve for a while then I make tools to carve with then I carve a bit more and so on. The pupils of the eyes are inlayed ebony and in actual size are .025 in diameter. Things get small very fast as you well know.I have many tiny scrapers and such that I have made over the years, I don't use power tools on my carving, all work is done by hand. this is not because I am against power tools, it more how dear the mateirials are to me. Good Boxwood or Ivory are hard to come by and I make less waste by hand. Many other carvers work 90% of the time with power tools and their work is fantastic.

Also the Mask is a fairly simple carving with not too much undercutting and the like. I carved a flower with over 250 separate petals (Carnation) all in the round, that one took a winter. I thru in the Mask just to show the other direction I go. Originialy I got into engraving to study the state of the art and got caught by the challenge (and FUN). I want to combine the two when I feel my engraving meets a mark.

I suppose I can give you some idea by saying as a rule the carvings get 12 hours of polishing,It so much depends on the detail you put in, the Mask simple the Carnation much harder, also Ivory carves very well and Boxwood is or can be a maze of grain change.

Not much real information but they take time untill they are done, I am sure everyone has hit that one.

scott99 Thanks for looking.