Thread: Finished engraved scales

Originally Posted by mackie

Sounds like you know a bit about engraving. Have you ever done any. I belong to a couple of gun engraving forums. Some of the greatest engravers in the world are there. I have learned from them but I have a ways to go. The only problem with the site is they are all into the new air tools that cost thousands of dollars and they engrave under special microscopes that also cost thousands. Even if I could afford that stuff I still would prefer the old ways. The old way is how they all got to be where they are. I'm working on it.

I've done a bit. I've got a small pneumatic engraver from GRS that I bought second hand, but it works wonderfully. I'm still working on getting my patterns down with good shading. I'd like to move into doing more knife and some gun work in the future.
The best thing that I invested in was a good honeing machiene with a calabrated stand to put the gravers in. No guess work on the angles.
I'm using a standard ball vise, but I've been using a product called thermolock to hold my pieces with. GRS carries it and it's not that expensive to buy, and you can reuse it over and over.
Here's a pic of one of the scales embedded in the thermolock and then clamped in the vise. It's not sticky so you don't have to worry about getting gunk all over your pieces as well.

cheers!