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Overwhelmed with the great responses to my engraving work. Appreciate that. Thanks
You are off to a decent start. You need more practice in your layout and maybe a sharper graver. Too many kinks standing out in your curves and many of the cuts show what appears to be chatter marks. If you don't have one, make a palm graver to clean up some of it. Trying to be helpful, not judgmental. Practice your drawing, especially the curves in scrolls. The sharper the graver, the cleaner the cut. Check out the Engravers Cafe if it is still up.
 
Thanks for the feedback . I use hand palm gravers, no power. Other
Projects have used hammer and chisel. Sharpening gravers by hand is a challenge for sure.
A Crocker sharpening Jig is affordable and better than nothing, but there are better systems.
 
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A Crocker sharpening Jig is affordable and better than nothing, but there are better systems.

Thanks for the advice. I have a Crocker, if it had meaningful easily repeatable scale markings it would be a much better tool. It’s difficult to get opposite angles exactly the same. I belong to the engravers cafe. And the work is eye candy for sure, amazing skills. Maybe one day will go to GRS school and try to unlearn My bad habits and pickup good ones.
 
I'm impressed.

Where do you get them and how many does a novice need?
This are some good resources on engraving in fact a link was shared on this thread. Can start pretty simple with one with a triangle type point and a flat on that looks like a chisel point. Mine came from a jeweler’s estate. eBay can be a source. GRS Emporia KS is an online source for power and hand gravers. Like a lot of things can be a bit of a rabbit hole. But could be kept pretty simple. It’s an ongoing learning process no matter how long a person has been engraving. I am a rank beginner.
 
Thanks! I may putter with it.
Hammer and chisel/graver, engraving, is way easier to learn, and easier on your hands. The hammers are wide faced but of a very light weight. Look at one and you can make one yourself from a small tack hammer as I did. The face would be around an inch diameter and maybe1/4/3/8 or so thick. Solder to the tack hammer. The best ones have a narrow neck which gives a tiny degree of springiness. Or just buy one. Square graver steel stock is relatively cheap, but you can slightly temper file steel and use it. A good graver is very hard but tempered or alloyed with some amount of toughness. Learning to draw is the hardest part of learning to engrave. No matter how well you can cut, the work will look no better than the design.
 
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These are my graver tools. The palm gravers are for shading and cleaning/refining cuts. The tool with the polished round point burnishes mis cuts or scratches. Of course, I never need it. Yes, that's a joke.
 
View attachment 360701
These are my graver tools. The palm gravers are for shading and cleaning/refining cuts. The tool with the polished round point burnishes mis cuts or scratches. Of course, I never need it. Yes, that's a joke.
My tools are very similar. Shows you don’t need fancy stuff. An engravers ball vise can be pricey
View attachment 360701
These are my graver tools. The palm gravers are for shading and cleaning/refining cuts. The tool with the polished round point burnishes mis cuts or scratches. Of course, I never need it. Yes, that's a joke.
my tools are very similar. Shows don’t need a lot of fancy stuff. Although a good engravers ball vise is a bit pricey and nice to have. The way I do it some bandaids can be handy too. Not supposed to stab yourself but it can happen. Some DNA signature on some of my work.
 
My tools are very similar. Shows you don’t need fancy stuff. An engravers ball vise can be pricey

my tools are very similar. Shows don’t need a lot of fancy stuff. Although a good engravers ball vise is a bit pricey and nice to have. The way I do it some bandaids can be handy too. Not supposed to stab yourself but it can happen. Some DNA signature on some of my work.
I used epoxy on 2 bys some times. Heat gun will release it pretty easy Sometimes left the part on the gun or whatever.
 

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