Reducing lathe. Rene Laligue

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi All, sometime ago I read about Rene Lalique, how he carved his
waxes for casting in metal and later in his career in glass. He
mentioned using a reducing lathe to get the fine detail. He would
carve the piece large and then by means of the lathe have it reduced
this was back in the late 1800s. Imagine you could carve a miniature
of your own head just by running the pointer over your face. It
mentioned roughly how the machine worked…by a series of pulleys
and gears a pointer may be placed on the item to be reduced and
whilst moved over the original the miniature is carved. This
fascinated me and any on acquiring one or even making
one would be greatly appreciated.

Ed Dawson
Maine Master Models
http://www.goldandsilversmithing.com

2

Dear Ed Dawson, Check out three dimensional pantographs. Die sinkers
have used these for many decades and I’m sure you could adapt one of
these for your needs. Kind regards, Rex

3

We believe the item you are interested in is called a pantograph.
This is the item that would hold the piece while it’s being turned
in the lathe. They were fairly common until CNC (computer numeric
control) usage. The beginning of the movie starring Nick Nolte as
Thomas Jefferson shows him using one to make copies of a document as
he wrote it. genevieve and rob