Hand wiggle engraving or how I drove myself insane :)

[rick landes]

I am working on the engraving of an early flintlock patchbox with a chisel and a hand push graver. WOW I have practiced until I feel confident and then feel like I am going to wilt when actually doing the small amount of work on the piece. I know time and more practice will help, but just had to share that as a newbie to the fun

I started my practice with polished steel and i was much easier than I had thought then going to brass sheet for practice...discover a whole new game...brass is tougher to work IMHO than the mild steel.

I am such a perfectionist I know I just need to commit (versus being committed!) and go slow a bit at a time.

Thanks for listening...any help would be great!

 

[Roger Bleile]

Rick,

Welcome to the club! Most of us remember our first job after doing practice work. In my case a fellow deputy sheriff was having a Winchester model 94 refinished so I told him that I would engrave it for free to get the experience. He approved so I made a design that, in retrospect probably looked more like strands of spaghetti with bumps along its length than scroll (in those days it was hard to find a picture of an engraved gun). Anyway I will never forget that first cut into the gun. My hands were sweating and shaky as I positioned my chisel and drew back the hammer as if I were going to split a diamond. Suddenly I decided I needed a drink of water. I set down the hammer and chisel and went to slake my thirst. Back to the bench, chisel set, hammer poised...I needed to visit the rest room. Set down the hammer and chisel. Back to the bench, chisel set, hammer poised, try as i might I couldn't think of any more excuses not to strike that chisel. My first to blows of the hammer started digging a hole to China. Odd this never happened when I practiced on those junction box covers! And so it went. The gun got finished and my friend thought it was wonderful since he had never seen an engraved gun and had nothing to compare it with. I'm sure your first gun will turn out much better. Post a picture and let us see.

Roger

 

[rick landes]

Thank you I knew I could not be the only one!
I did the silver daisy fine on the head of the patchbox and the toe plate head just fine, but now the brass is another thing!

My uploading of pics is giving me fits right now the new software/computer seems to not be able to read the camera. I want to (or at least a part of me wants to) post the pics for hints-n-helps! I ahve some pics of a wolf's track near my dogs pen to send the DNR for review and I cannot get those out either !

 

[Ron Smith]

Rick, don't feel alone my friend. We have all been there. Rogers experience took me back a few years and I couldn't help but smile as it is almost a duplicate of my first experience. You will get over it....some, but you never get over it really. I went through another period when I got enough practice after losing my thumb to try again, but even then I think we all have mild cases of it even with many years of experience, especially if we are stretching the boundaries of what we can do. Just go for it. When you make those first cuts, the butterflies will go away..........Right on Roger, ride on Rick.......Ron S

 

[monk]

the first thing i remember engraving that had real value was a custom made knife. it was valued at $3,000 before i engraved it. this was many years ago. at the time 3 grand was a real pile of cash. i remember staring at the knife for perhaps 2 hours before mustering the courage to engrave it. i had even considered not engraving the piece, and just giving up. fortunately common sense prevailed, i did the work. amazingly, the client actully liked it and came back later for more work ! i think what i'm saying is that you cant ever acheive anything worthwhile without investing some sort of risk. be it physical or mental, lofty goals require larger personal "investments".