Hi Chuck,
Jerry is a world-class engraver and gunmaker and his advice is spot on. What often happens when someone tries to learn engraving is they think it is hard (it is to some extent) and are not confident they can do it. Consequently, they don't want to spend much on the needed tools and accessories because they are afraid they will fail and the investment wasted. So they go as cheap as possible and failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wrote a short essay on learning to engrave for another forum and I will summarize a couple of points I made in it here. To start, you will need the following basic tools:
3 blank square gravers made of highspeed steel, glensteel, or momax cobalt. (These can be bought from Brownell's, Rio Grande Jewelry supply, or from Steve Lindsay's website)
3 handles for the gravers (you can make them from wood)
1 chasing hammer (from the suppliers above)
A sharpening system (I recommend the detail, universal, and flat templates from Steve Lindsay along with his diamond and ceramic stones. That is all you need to start with. There are other solutions but Lindsay's is of professional quality and relatively inexpensive. Whatever, you do don't buy a "Crocker" sharpening jig, they are a waste of money)
1 leather sharpening strop primed with a polishing compound like simichrome (you can make this from heavy leather and wood)
A sturdy vise that can turn
Good lighting that can be brought close to the work.
Some sort of magnification (optivisors work pretty well).
Mild steel plates for practicing.
The only gravers you need to start are a tiny square, a larger square, and a small flat, all mounted as chisels rather than hand gravers. With those 3 gravers you can copy 90% of the work done by firearm engravers from 1500-1830's. My list assumes you likely will want to learn to engrave more than just a signature. If not, you can get by with just one square graver mounted in a chisel handle and a chasing hammer. However, regardless of your objective, you must sharpen the graver properly and you really can't take any short-cuts with that. Lindsay's sharpening system will guide you through grinding and sharpening the gravers. He has a good tutorial explaining how to sharpen. You must learn that,learn to do it efficiently, and sharpen your tools often or you will never succeed. There are some pretty good DVDs available that can help you learn to engrave. Lynton McKenzie's is good and I think Jack Brooks also has one. I don't have time to launch into a tutorial but I will advise you to first learn to cut a nice, even straight line. Don't worry about letters, script, or scrolls when beginning. Just cut good straight lines and then move on to the other tasks. When you begin to work on letters and scrolls, you will need to learn how to transfer a design or signature to the metal for cutting. That is not a trivial task because a nice design drawn imprecisely on the metal will yield lousy engraving. I think the DVDs I mentioned have segments showing how to do that.
If you are serious about making fine guns, then engraving is an important skill to learn. You do not have to be a master at it like Jerry, but you should be able to cut simple clean designs to dress up your metal parts. In my opinion, a metal patchbox without some engraving is not very attractive. Keep in mind, that few longrifle makers could produce engraving that even matched mediocre work done in contemporary Europe.
dave
