I’ve been sucked in to the abyss… don’t try to save me, it’s too late.
But if you want to JOIN me, there’s a person posting great tutorials on instagram of the sharpening of hand push engravers.
They work as an engraver for jewelers in the Bay Area and were taught by a well known engraver.
Cheers!
Their instagram handle is: hazel.handengraving
Thank you. This is one of my bucket list’s rabbit holes!
First chips!
I have no idea how to do any of this, so any gentle advice would be greatly appreciated. But I’m at step one, so I know I’m probably making every mistake possible!
nice!
For a beginner that looks good. You might discover that you have a talent for this who knows?
Looks great! I blew it up to about 6X on my screen and it still looks good! What kind of magnification are you using? Don’t engrave yet, but the bench microscope changed my life. -royjohn
Thank you for your kind words! I feel so clumsy doing it still, of course. Yeah I’m using a microscope. I have really fallen in love with a microscope to help me as a beginner understand what’s happening the end of my tools.
It took me a little bit of time to get the sharpening geometry to a base level of functionality. Before that I was pushing really hard. Now I’m not pushing hard and I have more control.
Thank you! Only time will tell
The biggest tips that I learned for engraving letters is to break down the letters into a series of individual parts. For instance with a B. Engrave the straight line. Then engrave one curve. Then engrave the other curve. The other tip is to consider engraving the letters upside down or sideways so your mind sees them as shapes that are not connected to handwriting.
You’re doing great Brennan! Practice, Practice, Practice. Keep it up!
Jeff
That’s great info. Thank you. I’m a learn by the firehouse kind of guy so I’m enjoying getting buckets of info and pouring over myself.
I have found some really great resources on this thread:
In particular, search for “Winter’s School of Jewelry Engraving”
I really admire this kind of work. It looks like you are getting a “handle” on it if I may interject a rare pun. If I could work small like this I’d be making an attempt at least. The temptation to acquire more tools is always there however.
Nice work.
Don Meixner
I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned or if you are aware of https://www.lindsayengraving.com/ But it’s a great site with a lot of info. His AirGraver® is one of the best tools I’ve ever purchased.
Well it’s just the beginning, I know I have to spend a lot of time to build the muscle/eye/graver communication.
I hope others start too and then we can all stumble together.
He has beautiful tools! For now I prefer hand push though.
1” square copper with a little eye 
I wanted to experiment with describing volumetric forms with lines.
So many slips. Rushing too fast.
I bought my first hand engraver from Steve along with a set of unsharpend gravers and a sharpening system. Once I kind of figured it out, I bought an air graver. Steve’s tools are works of art and I am happy to own them…Rob
I think you’re missing the point ~ This is a great resource for anyone interested in Hand engraving. There is a wealth of info and links.
https://www.airgraver.com/HowToEngrave.htm
https://www.airgraver.com/video.htm
https://www.airgraver.com/Engraving Books.htm
https://www.airgraver.com/Manual-Engraving-Tools.htm
https://www.airgraver.com/sharpening.htm
https://www.airgraver.com/Engraving Accessories.htm
Oh no I have spent many hours on the site(s). Thank you for sharing the links for others though. It’s a bit outdated to navigate but that’s fine.
Him and Mr. Alfano have quite the lineage in the trade.
You missed one that I’ve used a lot:
https://www.engravingglossary.com/Hand%20Engraving%20Glossary%20B.htm
I also got my pneumatic engraver from Steve Lindsay. I chose the Artisan Airgraver at the time and now 2 or 3 years later it is still serving me very well.
