Just getting started

[Fruchey]

Hello
I have gotten very interested in engraving, and wanted to get some advise on what I should look at tool wise to get started with out breaking the bank.
Thanks

 

[Marrinan]

Welcome to the Café'! If you use the search feature with the search terms in " " you will find a large number of threads with good advice "beginner" "tools" Just cut and paste the terms in the search box. Fred

 

[dave gibson]

Hi Fruchey, welcome, what I did when I first got interested in tooling up and trying this out, was to look for a teacher. I was fortunate to find a school for engraving nearby. Most schools have all the equipment from major suppliers so you can try them all out. You also get to use them and find out if engraving is for you. You get to learn from experience what you need for what you want to do. I've always felt this was the best way to invest my money at first and I know it saved me more money than I invested on school. After I got familiar with the tools, I bought what I needed to get started and went back for more classes.
You can find information on schools and all things engraving here and on other forums, meanwhile enjoy the scenery.

 

[DKanger]

I see that you are in Ohio. I don't know if this class is full or not, but it might be worth checking out. As an added free bonus, I just donated 10 chasing hammer head blanks to give to the students to make their own chasing hammers when they get back home.
....................................................................

Introduction to Hammer Engraving w/ Tom Curran. Sunday May 12th 9:00 am - 5:30 at the Log Cabin Shop 8010 Lafayette Road Lodi, OH 44254.
Artist & engraver Tom Curran will introduce the possibilities of engraving and help you establish confident and comfortable metal engraving skills in a short period of time. This class will cover sharpening the face & heel of gravers, types & uses of different gravers (square, flat, liners), cutting and types of cuts, depth of cut control, drawing as a tool & transfers. Reference original work for designs, drawing designs directly on surface, dividers as layout tool for scribing borders and regular spacing, burnisher as layout tool, borders (running leaf and nick & dot), wiggle engraving. Learn when it is best to engrave parts on the rifle -vs- off the rifle.
Class fee includes two (2) gravers and one practice plate. Class fee is $75.00 per student. Preregistration is required.
Contact Log Cabin Shop at 800.837.1082 or webmaster@logcabinshop.com to register or with any further questions. Class is limited to ten students. Only a few spaces available.

 

[Fruchey]

Thank you for the all the info and pointing me in the right direction. I am looking into the hammer engraving class w/Tom Curran. I think this could be a perfect introductory to engraving for me. I sent them an email yesterday and am just waiting to see if there are any spots left in the class. May 12th is my 6 year wedding anniversary so the real trick is to convince the wife that this is a great anniversary present and let me celebrate with her a day early so I can take the class. I defiantly think that taking some classes is the best way to approach getting started. I am a am a glass artist and have been working with glass for about 12 years and with learning about glass as a material I don't even want to think about how much harder it would of been without having good instruction.
Thank you all for your help and insight,
Trevor Fruchey

 

[Marcus Hunt]

This is always a minefield question. Are you intending teaching yourself Fruchey? If so air assist is the way to go in reality. You'll get results much quicker than with manual tools. That being said, if you are really determined to learn you can teach yourself either push graver or hammer and chisel but be prepared for a very long learning curve. As an apprentice being trained by a master it was over 8 months working a 40 hour week before I produced anything near what could be termed "commercially acceptable". It's months of building muscle memory as well as learning to cut metal. This is almost bypassed when using air assistance.

So, if you're on a real tight budget but have a real desire to learn you'll need a graver with handle (or a hammer and chisel), a vise to hold your work (an engraver's ball vise is what you need), and some form of sharpening (either a bench stone and an ability to sharpen by eye, or some sort of fixture). The Meek book and Ron Smith's book on how to draw scrollwork are also a must. So you can get cutting for a few hundred bucks.

Spend a bit more on an Lindsay Airgraver, GRS GraverMax/Mach/Smith or Chris DeCamillis' En Set and you'll be cutting and producing scrolls much quicker. But it's not an "Instant Engraver" solution, there is still an awful lot to learn other than how to pass a graver through metal.

I was thinking about this tooling subject the other day. Okay, to a hobbyist starting up it seems like quite an outlay but in reality for around £4000 ($6000) or less, you can get a basic professional setup of graver system, vise, microscope, and sharpening system. Compared to if you wanted to run any other kind of business this is amazingly cheap. Even as a hobby it's still cheap; imagine if you play golf - a decent set of clubs and membership of a club is going to set you back that amount over a couple of years easily or if you're hobby is motorcycles or classic cars it's even more!

 

[monk]

man, you're in un-charted territory. observe anniversary, or go with the engraving ? i don't think any of us has the courage to tell you which way to go. good luck with that !

 

[tundratrekers@mtaonline.n]

Take a fine piece of jewelry and pay to have Tom engrave it for you while you look over his shoulder.
Then tell the wife you were out shopping for the perfect gift:biggrin:

God Bless,
michael