Without understanding the process, the result cannot be improved!
There is japanese saying "take care of the process, and the
process will take care of the result"
In my experience with engraving, an attempt at improvement must come
before any further understanding of the process can begin. A failure
to see a desired improvement causes introspection, and consequently,
a further study of the process. An engraver at any stage of learning
that isn’t concerned with improving from one cut to the next will
never understand any more of the many processes involved than they
currently do. If there is no perception of the need for improvement,
there’s no need of further understanding. The need to improve the
result will precede and fuel the pursuit of further understanding for
the rest of an engraver’s life if they let it. It can actually be a
pretty vicious cycle. I only know this to be true because it
describes my career in engraving in a nutshell.
Power hone is extremely detrimental in more ways than one. Script
graver has 4 angles which control how graver cuts. Combination of
these 4 angles is unique for every engraver.
I don’t use one single set of angles for my work, no engraver I know
does. I use about a half dozen different basic geometries. For a
couple of those, I have two or three with subtle variations in either
face or heel, and many of those I have in several different types of
steel. Each graver has a specific function, and it is prepared for
the one job it is expected to do in the metal in which it is expected
to do it. This dozen or so script gravers doesn’t include stipplers,
matte punches, flats, liners, onglettes or rounds, nor does it
include gravers used for stone setting and general goldsmithing, all
of which I have many, each one requiring at least some grinding and
polishing. The power hone cuts the shaping time to a fraction. I do
final polish with a jig and a ruby stone, although a ceramic wheel
charged with 50,000 grit diamond works pretty well too.
If power hone becomes essential, which means that one has to
re-sharpen often, is an indication that art of graver sharpening
is still a mystery. Power hone simply masks the ignorance. Another
problem is power hone wastes too much of a graver. Instead of
lasting weeks, sometimes even months, a graver is ground away in a
matter of days.
I don’t think anyone said a powerhone is essential, it is merely a
tool that speeds a laborious and tedious process. If your experience
with a power hone is that you can only make a graver last for a few
days or weeks, it might be your own ignorance in its proper usage
that may be the problem. My gravers last for years.
And here is the biggest problem with power assisted gravers.
Graver is NEVER PUSHED.
How then is a graver moved through the metal? By sheer force of
thought? Explain if you will please, exactly how and what a talented
engraver does, if she or he doesn’t push a graver to make it cut
metal.
This is also a good place to mention design transfer. I have seen
explanation of engraving as : transfer design and then guide the
graver alongs the lines. This is how power assisted engraving goes.
If you are referring to transferring original artwork to metal and
then cutting along the lines, yup. That’s pretty much how engraving
has been done for centuries. I think what you were really inferring
was something quite different, though.
Transferring the work of other engravers to metal and cutting it is
a great exercise, but no self-respecting engraver would ever show
such work in public. And no self-respecting person in any field would
ever claim someone else’s original designs as their own. I don’t
expect we’ll ever see one, but I think you owe an apology to many
very talented engravers. That’s a pretty cheap shot, even for you
Leonid.
In traditional engraving design is only a rough suggestion.
Engraver interprets the design in accordance with his/her own
unique style. The interpretation is direct outcome of a cutting
technique. Good cutting technique can only come from complete
understanding of cutting process, which is jointed at a hip with
the process of sharpening. A lot of times design is not even
transferred. Simple geometrical suggestion is sufficient.
Have you ever studied in detail the work of such engravers as L. D.
Nimschke, or Arnold Griebel, Lynton McKenzie or E. C. Prudhomme? I
think the answer is obvious. If you had, you would already know how
utterly preposterous the above paragraph is, and you wouldn’t have
made such a foolish statement.
The most difficult tool to master in engraving is the pencil. A good
engraver will spend at least as much time in design as in actual
cutting, usually substantially more, and a heck of a lot more time
learning it. If you are cutting on rough suggestion of design, you
aren’t engraving, you’re cutting random lines that roughly resemble
engraving, regardless of how sharp your graver is. Nothing of any
value in engraving is done roughly or with simple geometric
suggestion. But if that’s how you do it, your skill will show in your
work.
Speaking of your skill showing in your work Leonid, I would very
much like to see some of your engraving. A little bit of my jewelry
engraving is on my website. I haven’t seen a single engraved line on
yours, either the new one or the previous one. I am nowhere near the
league of really fine engravers, but I do manage to make a few
hundred dollars a week by engraving. Please demonstrate your skill
and technique so we can see for ourselves the difference between a
fashion designer and a tailor’s carrier. Make a tutorial video of how
you do your engravings. I would really like to see how you coax a
graver through metal without pushing it. I would also really like to
see how you make good design on the fly with nothing but simple
geometric suggestion.
Dave Phelps
precisionplatinumjewelry.com