This is a piece of 416ss and is a practice cut for a knife bolster. First a stencil of the drawing is applied. This is the first cut using the hand engraver.Next, each line is cut again to deepen the engraving so it is more readable. It continues to get worse looking until the end. Now another deeper cut is made around each “outside” edge but also inside the bolster outline. This is in preparation for removing the background for a deep relief style engraving. First pass on removing back ground material. I use a combination of traditional and flat gravers along with a NSK Presto 850 rotary hand piece. The rotary tool is air driven and spins at over 300,000RPM and sound just like your dentist’s drill. More work on the back ground. It is flattened with gravers to remove high spots and clean up the edges. Then is is hammered down with a blunt point graver.The back ground has been stippled with a sharp point graver and I have started shading. Here is the finished practice plate. I will use this as a guide to modify my drawing and then cut a new piece. I want it to be more readable so I will eliminate some of the smaller elements and fill it in a bit more.
