15. List of Tools and Materials needed.—To begin with, we must provide ourselves with the following requisites:[3]—
- Copper plates.
- A hand-vice.
- Ordinary etching-ground and transparent ground in balls.
- Liquid stopping-out varnish.
- Brushes of different sizes.
- Two dabbers,—one for the ordinary varnish, the other for the white or transparent varnish.
- A wax taper.
- A needle-holder.
- Needles of various sizes.
- A dry point.
- A burnisher.
- A scraper.
- An oil-stone of best quality.
- A lens or magnifying-glass.
- Bordering-wax.
- An etching-trough made of gutta-percha or of porcelain.
- India-rubber finger-gloves.
- Nitric acid of forty degrees.
- Tracing-paper.
- Gelatine in sheets.
- Chalk or sanguine.
- Emery paper, No. 00 or 000.
- Blotting-paper.
- A roller for revarnishing, with its accessories.
- To these things we must add a supply of old rags.
16. Quality and Condition of Tools and Materials.—Too much care cannot be taken as regards the quality of the copper, which metal is used by preference for etching. Soft copper bites slowly, while on hard copper the acid acts more quickly and bites more deeply. It is to be regretted that nowadays plates are generally rolled, which does not give density enough to the metal. Formerly they were hammered, and the copper was of a better quality. Thus hammered, the metal becomes hard, and is less porous; its molecular condition is most favorable to the action of the acid, the lines are purer, and even when the work is carried to the extreme of delicacy, it is sure to be preserved in the biting.
English copper plates, and plates that have been replaned, are excellent. It is a good plan to buy thick plates, of a dimension smaller than that of the designs to be made, and to have them hammered out to the required size. The plates thus obtained will not fail to be very good.
The vice must have a wooden handle, so as to prevent burning the fingers.
To meet all possible emergencies, lamp-black may be mixed with the liquid stopping-out varnish (petit vernis liquide). Some engravers find that it dries too quickly, and therefore, fearing that it may chip off under the needle, use it only for stopping out; for retouching, they employ a special retouching varnish (vernis au pinceau).[4]
For brushes, select such as are used in water-color painting.
The silk with which the dabbers are covered must be very fine in the thread.
In order to protect his fingers, an engraver conceived the idea of smoking his plates by means of the ends of several candles or wax tapers placed together in the bottom of a little vessel: they furnish an abundance of smoke, and can be extinguished by covering up the vessel. The smoke of a wax taper is the best; it is excellent for small plates.
The needle-holder holds short points of various thicknesses, down to the fineness of sewing-needles.