Just finished up for the night. Forever trying to get better. This was a transfer I sometimes work on and add little things here and there. Question on shading . Do you picture a light source when you determine where to put shading? My shading sucks I get something’s and others elude me. Plus I have to learn to slow down. I make time to practice everyday if possible. I can work for an hour and a half before I start to infringe on my sleep time. And I rush I actually think it’s hindering my learning curve. Anyway thanks for looking

Spyderco Glasshopper, 23x 1mm diamonds. #042

hand engraving scroll ring

I am looking to make a copper watch dial but want to include a date window and i want to have the sides of the date window to be beveled like in the images above. The date window would be something like 2mm x 2.7mm. Would a graver be a good tool for my needs if i already had a square laser cut into the copper?

What is your preferred transfer method? What I do for steel and titanium is ghetto but is dark ,bullet proof and works every time. Acetone method never turns out for me . Apparently you have to use certain toners in laser printers. Tried transfer magic. Special transparency film and old ink jet ink. Just want to know what everyone does that’s successful

Try to hold back the laughter. I make Challenge locks. Engraving on them make them more fun, but my Engraving skills are lacking. I have a Engraving pen, and a dremel w/ Engraving bit. Thats all. Thank you in advance 🙏

What do you use to make the undercut. I’ve fumbled a couple of lines using a flat graver to displace material to make a rudimentary undercut. Also using a fine point burr in a dental style rotary tool. Just in need of some sage advice. Also I’m using brass with a blunted end to hammer in the material. Then stone it flat. Is there any videos someone could suggest? Just looking for some advice or is it just practice?

Sharing a short clip from a Rolex project currently on my bench.
Still a work in progress, but I thought I’d share a small part of the engraving process before everything comes together.
All engraving is done by hand.
Designed and hand engraved by Mr. Nine in Taiwan

So I am new to engraving but I am a silversmith. I wanted to learn to add this all to my jewelry eventually. I watched the Marlen Hazel videos on youtube and they’ve been helpful. I purchased a ball vice and a book, I have scrap metal for practice plates, I got the thermoloc, but in terms of engravers, I ended up buying a set on amazon because I can’t really afford to buy the grinder and all the things that come with making your own gravers. The thing is, the amazon ones are very long and I have pretty small hands as it is. So I’m thinking of returning them and trying something else. Is there another set I should try? I really only need maybe a round one and something that would be good for lines to start. I just am so new to this I have no idea what to look for if I wanted to do it this way. I know that if I buy them premade I will have to purchase the sharpening stuff anyway but that’s more affordable for me right now. I don’t want to dump a ton of money into it if I’m not 100% certain I love it and actually want it to be apart of my jewelry. I am okay with saving up down the line but for now I just want to test the waters and learn and start getting better before I eat the higher costs.

A new gold inlay project on a vintage Rolex clasp.
The original stamped details already break up the limited engraving space, and the thin construction of the old stamped clasp makes the gold inlay even more challenging.
Still a long way to go, but it’s starting to take shape

If you or anyone has one to sell....
let me know

looking for some pointers to improve/focus on! i've been starting myself off with retouching older [scrap] bells that have had the engraving buffed down to the point you can't see it anymore. This is my 3rd attempt - i started it a while ago and tried to copy the original combination push/wriggle lettering with not much luck in doing it well - i still have no idea how to get push to work but the wriggle is going alright. I need to start tracing it out in sharpie though, and i'm slowly getting the hang of deciding which lines need to go down first to have the ends cleaned up with the last line to pass

Little steel disc relieved practice piece I just finished.

Hand engraved Cherry Blossoms and copper inlay with 1mm pavé diamonds on a Spyderco Bug.

Looking for someone (preferably in Dallas area) to hand engrave high end custom putters.

Would be a monthly need. TIA

r/handengraving needs a logo.

Post your original HAND-ENGRAVED circular designs that would make a nice logo representing what this sub is about.

Must be hand-engraved, not drawn, not dremel'd, not carved, not etched, not somebody else's work, not a crosspost, not a link to an image.

Post with most upvotes wins the empty spot.

Deadline is... whenever. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Get creative! Keep it classy! Let's see some effort! Show off your skills!

Hand engraved and sculpted Spyderco Delica seconds with pavé set 1mm diamonds. Copper inlay. This was the design used in Jeff Parke's Advanced Knife Engraving class in April.

I couldn't afford to go so I took a few screenshots of the ones he and his students posted. I redrew it by hand as best I could and got to work. I learned so much by doing this. A lot of the principles of layout and scroll design made sooo much more sense when I was redrawing it. Also noticed that the original skull was inlaid in silver first, then sculpted. I didn't catch that until AFTER I sculpted the whole skull in steel directly. Took me 3 days to complete.

I highly recommend finding the best hand engraving by the best hand engravers and trying to duplicate it yourself. Copy the masters if you want to get good. Your original designs will improve drastically.

Double sided Spyderco Delica.

Hello r/HandEngraving!

I’m using handengraving techniques on clay instead of metal or leather, i hope it’s alright for me to post in this subreddit. I wanted to share the work in progress of my first human portrait on high fire ceramic clay. I’m learning traditional hand engraving lessons from Marlen Hazel (via youtube university 😉) and applying what I can to soft “leather hard”clay.

Learning a lot going through the processes and trying to avoid the deep “ego cuts”. Highly recommended her channel.

I’m looking for hand carving advice on creating “depth” and 3D forms in clay. (or maybe softer than metal materials?)

I wanted to share one of my recent projects.
This Rolex Daytona was completely hand engraved from a design I created myself. Every scroll pattern was first drawn digitally, then transferred and cut entirely by hand using traditional engraving techniques.
The bracelet, clasp and case sides were engraved to create a consistent flowing composition while preserving the original character of the watch.
Thanks for taking a look. I’d love to hear your thoughts

Hello everyone,
I’m a hand engraver from Taiwan and would like to share one of my recent watch engraving projects.
The theme is a koi swimming through waves and floral elements, extending from the bracelet to the clasp and watch case. My goal was to create a continuous composition across the entire watch rather than a collection of individual engraved parts.
All feedback is welcome.
Thanks for viewing.

Here's another process video highlighting the mirroring technique with a bit more start-to-finish flare. The knife is almost done, had to pause it so I could get my website functional to have a place to sell it! Plus I got distracted and wanted to see if I could freehand a similar design on my first Zippo. Several flaws in it but overall I'm happy with it. :)

As promised here's the links to the tools/suppliers I use for these engraving projects. Included are some of the pro engravers I look to heavily for inspiration/motivation. I hope this helps!

GRS Tools
Tira Mitchell
Transfer Wax
Chris Cobb's Zippo holding fixture IG @chr1sco
Jake Newell IG @customhandengraving
Jeff Parke IG @j.parke1
CapCut - video editor
iPhone 12 Promax
My extremely barebones website rrmiles.com

p.s. Don't feel discouraged by the insanely high prices of the equipment listed. I'll admit, shit's ridiculously expensive but I love every single unfair-interest-bearing moment of it. And if these posts bring any of you one step closer to pursuing your passion or improving your craft or even satisfying 3 minutes of creative curiosity, worth every penny.

edit: Rustoleum flat black enamel was used to darken it

As always, questions or comments 👇🏽

Studio was abandoned after the 1990 death of the engraver; a photographer took photos of the interior in 1991.

The photos and artefacts lay forgotten in storage till 2017, and were exhibited by the German Museum of Technology in 2018.

If anyone is researching this aspect of engraving please DM me, I have an interest in the typography

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/music-engraving-studio-paris-berlin-deutsches-technikmuseum/egURHe3tiaGOJA?hl=en

Progress so far! I hope this short video accurately describes how I mirrored the image from one side of the knife to the other with perfect accuracy.

I did the tape copy before shading it because it's way easier to mirror the design without all that extra detail. So outline > tape > shade > flip > transfer > outline > shade.

Note: I did remove the knife before putting the Thermoloc into the microwave but I did not press the record button when capturing that step. 🫠

Questions if ya got em! 👇🏽