I almost finished this part of the knife, I will post them later.
As I explained why I like it that much drawing real size on Chinese White, and of course while cutting, you still can make changes.
arnaud
By the way, I really liked the posted photos of you and your daughter in period costume, very handsome! Tell us what style of music your like to play on your double bass?
Yes a lot of useful info on blackening brass in the other tread. I have another product meant for blackening Tin. My dad used it for darkening the tin of his Tiffany glass. It looks green and it also blackens silver.
I just put it on the brass using a cotton bud and waiting a few minutes. Then washed it with water and soap and polished the highlights using a leather on a board.
Layne, the fixture does everything you expect it to do. It can hold most all sizes up to the width of a Zippo lighter. It has a lot of screws to adjust the width and height.
One minus, probably the rubbers that prevent from damaging your workpiece hold the knife pretty good, but there might be some vibrations. Not a big deal otherwise I wouldn't using it.
arnaud-- not sure if i like your engraving or your foto skills the best. in any event-- this is just plain beautiful work to behold. i tried making a homebrewed version of the grs holder. used bicycle chain, and .6"thick pvc block it didn't work-- oh well ! i tried.
Very beautiful scroll design Arnaud and very nice cutting.
Did you use a ball burr like Danea did or a beading tool, can't see it in the picture ( which are good...).
Altogether, Arnaud, a very nice piece of work, good design and cutting, well done!
I like the subdued look you got with the darkened brass.
Question: I assume that you use your EnSet with single blow setting to do the dot domed background, which looks very good, so do you like the Enset for that job?
Thank you Rod, however the design is not that good and there are some errors I made too. It is just the way of adding engraving to any surface this way that works accurate for me and will help my drawing and cutting skills a lot in a shorter time.
Indeed I use the EnSet all the time for stone setting, engraving texture hammering and so on. For the background, it is just a matter of setting t he psi right in combination with the strikerhead. Every bead then just need one hit.
Thank you Sam, and here is an update on my drawing experience using Chinese white.
Yes, I’m drawing small and detailed again even at real size. I can handle with that in the future but had to find out. This one has a quite complex interweaving scroll design and of course I had to make some correction while drawing.
For the big changes I use a cotton swab and for tiny corrections a wooden toothpick works great. Adding a drop of water and Chinese white to it works even more precisely than a gum.
The other thing, if the design is not pleasing, you just can start all over after making a photo. That way the design isn’t lost for future use.
However, I hope you like this design too.
Arnaud, are you drawing ON the chinese white or does your pencil draw through it to expose the metal? Your pics look like you're able to draw on it. I've never had much luck with that because my hard pencil removes the white.
Winston Churchill uses a kind of chinese white in a tube instead of a brick. It's from the UK, and with a softer pencil he can draw on it and even use an eraser (very carefully of course) to make a correction.
Yes Sam, I know you use the H9 pencils, they indeed make scratches and are not able to draw on the surface of the Chinese White. I use a 0.3mm or 0.5mm that draws easily on the Chinese White without removing it.
I also used you transfer wax and a H9 with good result, but that doesn't draw on the wax, just removes the wax.
As I said, the good thing about using the Chinese White and a softer pencil, is that you can make corrections by covering the pencil strokes by new Chinese white, depending on the size using the tooth stick or the cotton swab.
You should give it a try, it is great fun. One thing you have to find is the amount of paint versus the water. I use both a Chinese white block and tube, they are equal in use. But don't put too much paint on the surface. And it drys just by blowing on it a bit.
And you do not need a real needle point, that because compared with paper the surface is harder and so you only can touch the paint with your pencil on a small area. Paper is a bit compressible, the metal isn't.
I should make a short video perhaps to show it to others.
Yes I should give this a try. I've been using the wax for so many years but I'm open to new techniques for sure. A lot of times it's difficult to see layouts when done in wax, but chinese white always has good contrast.