Learning Metal Engraving: Week 2, even 3.
Time is flying by. I’m still working on the panels for the screen, but I’ll write about that separately. I’ve been engraving much more often, though. My original plan was two sessions a week, but that has now become at least four. So I’m spending around an hour a day engraving, apart from weekends. Here’s a small selection of what I’ve managed to do.
The leaf designs are from Sam Alfano’s course. I bought his videos a while ago, and they came with several PDFs. The circles are from there too. I bought some more brass and cut it into 50 × 50 mm plates. And they’re awkward to work with! The plates we used in class were 30 mm across, and I made 40 mm ones at home, but 50 mm feels so far removed from miniature work that I’m completely out of my comfort zone. I can’t explain why. Anyway, I ended up cutting some of the plates in half, giving me 25 mm-wide pieces, which turned out to be just right for me.
The pattern on the plate with the vertical lines and notches is one I stole from class. The trick is to make those notches very neatly, hitting the exact center of the groove without touching the opposite wall. I wrestled with this for several days and, by the end of the second week, I think I’d found a little bit of zen. By the third week, I was getting it right much more often. Plain straight lines are still torture for me, but I’ve made my peace with that. Sometimes I think the problem is the pedal rather than me: the speed occasionally jumps quite abruptly, and I’ve been struggling with that for months now. I still don’t know how to solve it, so I’m training my foot to handle those transitions more sensitively.
My circles are getting a little better. For now, I’m aiming for 50 hours of practice in total before drawing any conclusions. I dread the thought that any of this might be a waste of time. Surely it will help with my woodcarving too… it will, won’t it?
A useful addition to my practice: I’ve started a separate notebook just for engraving. Previously, I only had a sketchbook and a general work notebook. I realized I needed to bring everything together in one place. Putting it together will give me some extra practice and a chance to revisit the theory.
I’m also trying to draw more often again. I’ll have to show you some sketches at some point, just to prove I’m not making it all up. For now, I’m drawing a bit of everything: exercises, sketches from life, ornamental designs, and furniture. I’m muddling along to keep moving and keep my spirits up.
Let’s see what next week brings. I want to make some new practice plates. I’ve already worked through the ones I have several times, and I’m ready for something new.
Learning Metal Engraving: Week 1
Where else should I write about this if not on my own website? After a break of many months, I have returned to learning hand engraving.
It has now been exactly a year since my trip to St. Petersburg, where I took a course in using GRS pneumatic engraving tools. It was an incredibly exciting and productive week. I came home both inspired and somewhat daunted: inspired by the remarkable skill of the school’s instructors, and daunted by the amount of equipment I would need either to replace or acquire.
I am still searching for my ideal setup. I liked the GRS system, but it is expensive, and I am slightly alarmed by the compressor constantly switching on above my head. Yes, the compressor in my workshop sits on a shelf just below the ceiling, directly above my workbench. How do you like that for a setup?
There is also a Russian-made option: Peresedov’s version of the Valtman system, which is what I currently use. I am happy with it in every respect except one: compared with the GRS system, I find the foot pedal rather difficult to control. The GRS pedal seems to respond more smoothly, making it easier to find exactly the right amount of pressure. I do not know how to explain it more precisely—sorry. 🙂
Then there is the PulseGraver, which Roman Butin also uses. It does not require a compressor at all. It seems almost ideal, but it is expensive too, so for now I can only gaze wistfully in its direction. It is sold only in the US. I am not opposed to compressors in principle; I would simply prefer a system that could run with a less demanding compressor setup. I am also looking at Roman Donchenko’s equipment. Naturally, none of these options is cheap, so I need to keep saving my pennies.
Meanwhile, I am working with what I have. To begin with, I went back through the videos I bought last year—the ones by Sam Alfano—which came with PDFs containing designs for practice plates. I found a few more on forums, and asked AI to generate some additional designs in vector format. Altogether, I now have quite an impressive collection.
And then, of course, there is the simple matter of practicing straight lines. What could be easier? Incidentally, it is recommended that you spend 50–100 hours on straight lines alone. In my previous post, I mentioned spending 76 hours on the embroidery, and that comparison really made me stop and think. Fifty to one hundred hours is a huge amount of time!
Anyway, I bought some more brass and cut it into plates. I have already completed several of them, using a 130° graver.
In the photo above, I had just tried sharpening a new graver that morning, while reminding myself which bit needed to be tilted where. 🙂 I have also started gathering all my notes from the course, videos, forums, and books I have read. I think I need to bring everything together in a single notebook somehow, although I have not yet decided exactly how.
I never managed to cut the scroll on the plate because I ran out of time. Altogether, I spent around five hours practicing this week, doing a little at a time before work. I have no particular expectations at this stage. I understand that learning a new skill from scratch is difficult, but even the smallest amount of progress makes me very happy.
At the course, I was enormously impressed by the practice plates with laser-engraved designs—the lines were incredibly fine and precise. I do not have the necessary equipment for that, so I simply transfer my designs with acetone. Unfortunately, I have already damaged some of the grid markings on my cutting mat.
Next week, I plan to resume my daily sketches of scrollwork and my study of ornament, which I was doing while staying at the country house. I also need to keep practicing my sharpening—it seems to be going fairly well.
