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Here are some other descriptions of engraving styles from Adone Galleries:

RAISED INLAY --- Inlay is the means of inserting precious metals such as Silver / Gold / Platinum into a base material such as steel. The process involves cutting out the pattern from the base material to the exact shape of the image to be inlaid. The depth of the cut out is relative to the thickness of the material being inlaid and should be approx. half its thickness. After the cut out has been leveled the inner edges are under-cut (dove-tailed) and the material to be inlaid is then hammered into place causing the precious metal to expand into the under-cutting. The mushroomed surface material is then leveled by either chisel, stoning or sanding... off the excess, then the material is trimmed back to the proper image shape and finally detailed as needed. A proper inlay should never be easily removed and certainly not without serious damage to the inlay itself.

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RAISED OVERLAY --- Basically this appears as an inlay however it is not a true inlay in the sense that no cut out has been made in the base material but instead a fine checkerd pattern is cut and thin materials are hammered over the checkerd area, the precious metal fixes itself to the checkerd base. The mushroomed surface material is then leveled by either chisel, stoning or sanding... then trimmed back to the proper image shape and finally detailed as needed. This method is less expensive than inlay however is never as secure and is easily removed. Care must be taken around thin areas such as dogs tails, birds feathers.... A poorly executed overlay will be susceptible to lifting if care is not taken. I have personally seen many an old firearm with parts of the gold missing and have also seen some poor overlays loosened due to heavy gun recoil over time. It really depends on the skill of the engraver.

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FLUSH INLAYS --- Same as the raised inlay's with the difference that the precious metal is than chiseled, stoned, sanded.... flush with the base surface. Inlay's that vary in width such as a borders or vine patterns which taper may required multiple pieces of varying widths of material to be fitted together then hammered and merged as one. Consequently the time and effort is far greater than a simple inlay and cost rises accordingly.

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The below sample is a combination of a 3 level relief with bulino line cutting and bulino dotting techniques. The face including jaw are higher than the mane and the mane is higher than the background. The mane and most of the face are in line work and the interior of the mouth, eyes and other selective areas are dotted.

RELIEF ENGRAVING --- This method involves the removal of material within the backgrounds of the engraved motif. The process itself requires that the main pattern be engraved as per conventional methods and then followed by the slow and meticulous cutting away and leveling of the surrounding material which in turn lowers the background from the foreground, the foreground being the actual design pattern. The result is the elevation of the engraved design. The background itself is then generally treated in a variety of techniques, such as punched, stipple, lined or dotted. Each of these treatments may carry its own unique characteristics depending on the particular style and abilities of the engraver.

PUNCHED BACKGROUND --- The punched background is created by using a fine punch with a slightly rounded tip, usually shaped to meet the engraver's needs. The result is a series of concave punching which create a darker contrast against the engraved pattern. This is perhaps the most commonly used method of backdrop treatments and is the fastest to produce, least expensive while creating uniformity and contrast throughout the relief.

STIPPLE PUNCHED BEADED BACKGROUND When executed well this method will result in a beautiful arrangement of raised domes which will refract light due to the convex surface. Stipple punches (AKA BEADING punches) may be hand made however it is far better to purchase these inexpensive punches as there is difficulty in making two or more exact punches and since size, depth and uniformity is of utmost importance then it pays to purchase a handful of each size if you plan to use them often. Stipple punches are available in a variety of sizes and this may be seen in many early period American engravings. In my personal opinion the smaller the stipple the more attractive the background will be and the better the contrast from foreground to background.

This method takes longer than the standard concave punched method and size of stipple will determine amount of time required to fill a given background area. Note that stipple punched (beaded punch) is less forgiving than concave punching and flaws are more readily visible therefore uniformity / arrangement / organization of punched groupings is imperative in producing a top grade background.

STIPPLED DOTTED BACKGROUND --- The basic principal of this stipple technique is very similar to dotting in the sense that the engraver still dots the backdrop however with one major difference and that being non controlled dots but rather as rapid markings of the surface and passing over the same spot time and again until the entire given area is completely filled or matted by a texture.

LINED BACKGROUNDS --- This method is universal in the sense that it works equally as well with relief engravings as it does with non relief. The method is simplistic however time consuming. It involves cutting fine lines tightly packed to create a very attractive dark contrast from background to foreground. The tighter the arrangement of lines the darker the contrast will be and the more time will be required to achieve the desired result. Depth of cut for each line is less relevant than the spacing between each line. These lines need not be deep at all. Many engraver's fall prey in thinking that depth solely controls density in contrast. A far better approach is in ascertaining the most appropriate angle for the lines to be cut, in conjunction with the viewed position of the engraving. What this really means is that a firm understanding of light reflection is important in order to best represent the desired effect. This method eats up more time than either of the aforementioned punching techniques, however it truly does a wonderful job of separating the backdrop from the foreground for high contrast results.

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BULINO DOTTED BACKGROUNDS --- Now this is the ultimate in contrasts and the hours required are simply overwhelming, especially when this treatment is applied to a rifle or shotgun receiver and its many individual parts. Here the technique is identical to bulino dotted scenes... hundreds of thousands of dots are created which in turn will have the versatility of controlling absolute tonal changes. e.g. fading a background into a foreground literally from black to white... The cost soars when this technique is used and most commonly a complete treatment in this fashion is reserved for the finest of engraved objects. This method once again is universal in the sense that it may be implemented within all styles of engraving, relief, non relief... The final result when correctly executed with precise even uniformity is spectacular and can literally achieve satin like finishes. I have yet to see a bead blasted effect that can come close to the exquisite beauty of a Bulino dotted background.

LINERS AND SHADING --- The liner tool is essentially the same as a flat graver with one major difference, unlike the flat graver which will have a shaped polished heel the liner has a series of fine lines grooved along the entire length of the graver bottom. Liners come in a variety of sizes and line spacing and are generally marked with two sets of numbers, one defines the width of each line and the other defines the spacing between the lines. This tool is designed to make a series of uniformed cuts mainly for shading purposes, however it can be put to other effective uses such as matting a background and even for shallow relief cutting, a curved liner works best for these purposes. The straight liner is mainly used on curved objects and curved liners mainly used on flat objects. There is no comparison to single shaded lines and a liner will never replace the fine free detailing of singular shading. A single cut allows for far more expression and variable depth / width of a cut where as a liner tends to produce less contrast and less control over individual characteristics of each cut line. It does however have it's uses and does produce very nice results when applied correctly and within the appropriate engraved style.

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LETTERING --- Engraving has several areas which tend to be understated and under appreciated, lettering just happens to fall under that category, perhaps because lettering is such a common element of everyday life we seem to ignore the precision of its structure, therefore it tends to often pass unnoticed in engravings. Lettering is one of the hardest things to do well and few engraver's are able to tackle it with confidence and assurance of quality final results. Its nature is so sensitive that the slightest deviation from its perfect alignment seems to stand out like a sore thumb. Script lettering (stylish hand writing) is by far the most forgiving of styles for engraver's, though at first impression it may appear as complex largely due to its stylish and sometimes intricate format, it is in fact the most forgiving of lettering styles as it is not rigid in structure.

English style lettering which is comprised of thick and thin strokes aligned perfectly from one letter to another and contain delicate suref's which enhance it tremendously tend to be extremely difficult to execute perfectly as even the slightest deviation in angles becomes most apparent. This style of lettering looks very much like Roman letters. Lettering by nature can be deceptive since spacing between letters is not uniformed and is determined by the letter directly to the left and to the right. This presents a problem since it becomes a visual determination in order to achieve correct spacing.

Another problem is that letters like "A" "C" "G" "Q" "S" "U" "V" have at least one end that is not a horizontal line such as "B" "E" "F" "P" "T" these letters have a wide horizontal surface at one or both ends (top or bottom) What this really means is that the first grouping of letters described above will appear to be smaller than the second lot of letters below because there is less horizontal surface. It is an optical illusion and one that can only be corrected by slightly expanding the height of first grouping of letters.

Lettering in most cases is cut from many angles, in other words each stroke of a letter be it horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or curved is cut in two directions, entry point will be a shallower cut then the exit point, therefore it is necessary to turn the work around and cut the same stroke from the opposite direction to even the depth of cut. As you can see every letter will have at least two passes before completing it and when you add up all the different strokes in a letter and multiply them by the various passes it becomes very clear that lettering is not just a simple process, although a proficient engraver sure makes it appear so.

Many times it is not possible to engrave the letter from opposite directions, there may be raised portions on the object being engraved which inhibit multi directional cutting. This situation makes life difficult for the engraver and when a beautiful lettering job is completed many times it simply goes unnoticed, but ask an individual to draw a series of letters at 1/16" or so and witness the horrible results, at this point they easily become aware of the engraver's skills, lets not forget that engraver's do this on metals where there is no erasing or second chances. "one shot get it right and get it right every time".

Difficult is an under-statement and consequently few engraver's wish to tackle lettering and some literally avoid it like the plague. Well rounded engraver's have devoted much time and effort in learning to letter well, it's unfortunate that it should be so under appreciated by most. But I suppose it's just human nature, after all lettering is in all our faces day in day out.

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Clark

Double Rifle Shooters Society
.500 NE and .577 NE