Finally Ready for some feedback...

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Justin

You have done the most important part of learning to engrave. And that is start.

The second most important thing now is for you is to practice................a lot.

The best advise i can give you is to break your practice time into 3 sections. First is practice with your chosen tool and the second is practice with pencil and paper.

The third thing is get as much reference material as possible. Books, castings and videos/DVD. With the absense of a teacher looking over your shoulder 8 hours a day then this reference material is essential.

Good engraving books arn't cheap but worth their weight in gold and provide inspiration as well as self awarness. The castings give you real engravings to look at and the videos/dvds teach you a wealth of practical information.

I guess what I'm saying is.....................become like blotting paper and absorb as much as you can of masters work. Listen to what good engravers have to say and act on it.

It takes a while for all the threads to come together and can be incredibley frustrating that the hands won't do what the mind sees.......................but...............bit by bit the threads will start coming together as your understanding grows.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Daniel Houwer]

Daniel,

I am game to give that bolster a try... I agree the shading will be difficult to meet but imagine we can figure something out. I think having a challenge will push you to work on it and strive for the best work possible...

I'm In!

-justin

Hy Justin,
One month?

Ow, what have I've gotten myself into
I will do my best to get this thing engraved and even if I get it a poor lookalike I'll be glad. Lets compare notes in a month Justin!

 

[KCSteve]

Steve,

Thanks for the compliment, words of encoragement and friendly advice.

I actually drew this on the plate with a pencil. Well I drew the two circles, and the flower and then did the filler by hand. I am still working on the control with the wiggle it is hard to keep it uniform still but I'll keep working on it.

I have played with transfers a bit but haven't really gotten the hang of it yet. I have tried the Sharpie tech. and it seems to work okay for me. I tried the laser printer with acetone but it didn't work for me. Have you modified your printer to remove the heat roller?

I hope that i am that far by xmas but we'll see!

Thanks again
-justin

Just getting the transfers to work for me so I know where you are. As everyone's saying, practice will get you there.

The acetone transfer's are working well for me. Just my normal laser printer, the same one I use for everything else. Right now I'm doing some Zippo lighters (pictures soon). They're the basic plain brass ones and have a brushed surface texture that takes the transfer well. Have you tried prepping the surface with some 600 grit sandpaper on a block? Sand in a single direction to make a nice surface. It'll take a pencil line well, a scribed line (although the ones going with the 'grain' are trickier to see), a line from the wax + pencil trick, and the acetone transfer.

I'm following the directions in that 10-page 'transfer' paper in the Tutorials area. I just trim it with just enough extra to let me use some bits of tape to hold it in place, then put a touch of acetone on a paper towel and wipe the back of the printout. Not too much pressure, just transferring the acetone from the paper towel to the paper until it turns transparant. Get the whole thing done and then lift it off. I tried letting it dry and that's not right - the toner re-adheres to the paper. Wet it with a little pressure and lift off the paper and the toner is left sitting on the metal. The acetone dissolves it, the pressure moves it, and then you lift away the paper and it's forced to dry itself onto the metal. I see some 'bounce off' as I cut but no problems so far.