Thread: How to engrave scales?

Granted I am a full time carver but this doesn’t require much beyond getting a dremel tool with some burrs , making an outline on the scale of your plate and grinding away a recess up to that line. The overall depth doesn’t have to be precise. Only the outline . I do have a wide variety of chisels but they never came into play. But I did use an X-acto knife to get into the points as they were quite small.
An oval design is much simpler.
As to the plates I make all mine. Either silver or brass (and abalone, ivory etc too) I get thin stock, lay out a design, tin snip it close and clean it up with a disc in the dremel and or files. Whatever you have handy. Let’s face it 100 yrs ago they didn’t have dremel tools or micro motors and they got them to fit.
The handiest things are the tiny burrs. I’ve actually got some from my dentist that I’ve used as long as it was 1/16th shaft.

Silver plate ( online) and brass stock from hobby shops.
My favorite is using old cracked ivory scales to make inlays as it’s thin and very easy to work and etch.

Invest in a jewelers saw and some blades and then you can cut your own inlays. Stew-Mac has a lot of supplies for inlaying.

I went the high tech route. A rough sketch granted but it’s only a “see what it takes” kinda thing . All in less than a minute. Now a little file or sandpaper work and it would be clean enough to trace an outline onto a scale.
Took longer from my last post to photos and posting this than it did to make it.

Again, high tech tools ! I used that file and some sandpaper then polish to clean it up a bit.
I would guess many here could do this. A file, tin snip. If all you have is a dremel use that with cut off wheels.
It’s a decent size that could be engraved.
And being so thin it wouldn’t take much to relieve a spot to drop it into.

Originally mentioned in a book by "The last Little Messr,"... A Parser.
old-tech-drills-any-shaped-hole/
~Richard

petermcbride.com/parser/
I have made and used clicker dies for years.

Moving right along. Using a diamond burr to cut up to the line and just hog away the middle you can see how I can press it into place. This set of diamond cutters ran me $20 ? Crisp up the edge with an X-acto as trying to push it too far with power may lead to a quick oops. And the blade leaves a smoother, accurate edge.
With that and a Dremel you can inlay your way to fame and fortune.
Here I only did the upper half as this is a junk scale and only needed a visual to follow.

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Thanks 32t!
As your line indicates,,,, it’s fear of the unknown that stops us. Hopefully seeing this little demo removes some of the fear and encourages someone to give it a whirl! Not as scary when you see a path to follow and someone says “ hey,, I’ll give that a try”

My hat goes off to you mycarver. You do make it look easy. I am rotary tool challenged and like a chisel in hand. You are correct and that we should not be afraid to push our boundaries on a regular basis. Its good for the mind and soul. And you can make cool stuff too.