Engraving on Metal

Engraving on metal is a beautiful art. The method is simple and the effect is striking but it requires a good deal of patience and long practice to do really good work.

Fig. 41. tools for engraving on metal

A. Shapes of gravers.
B. Handles for gravers.

The Tools That Are Used.

—Engraving tools, or gravers as they are called, are made in ten or a dozen shapes but the knife, round and lozenge gravers will be enough to do all ordinary work with. The different shapes are shown at [A in Fig. 41].

All of the gravers are about the same length, that is 4¹⁄₂ or 5 inches, and they are fitted with knob shaped handles a third of which has been cut away as shown at [B], so that the graver can be gripped in the palm of the hand with the flat side against it which keeps the tool in the right position. The way to hold a graver is shown at [C].

Fig. 41c. how to hold a graver

How to Engrave on Metal.

—If the object to be engraved is very small it should be fixed to a block of wood with the Burgundy pitch compound above described, but if it is a large object it need not be mounted.

In either case an engraving pad, that is, a round, thick leather pad filled with sand, is a very great convenience to rest the work on because it permits the work to be easily turned in any direction and held at any angle while it is being engraved.

Fig. 41d. an engraving on a sheet of copper

Rolled sheet copper is a good metal to practice on and you can trace the design you want to engrave on it by dabbing a thin film of engraver’s wax[35] on the metal surface with your finger and then sketching the outline with a bone stylus, that is a piece of bone having a sharp point. An example of art engraving is shown at [D in Fig. 41].

[35] You can use beeswax but it is better to make a wax by melting together 3 parts of beeswax, 3 parts of tallow, 1 part of Canada balsam and 1 part of olive oil. Or you can buy a small cake of Chinese white, wet your finger, rub it on the white and then dab it on the metal surface.