Wow, I'm really humbled by all the wonderful comments from you guys. Many thanks.
This is the first engraving I've done in about two years. As my old friend and great engraver John Rhoner once told me, "It's not like riding a bicycle, you have to engrave every day to be really good at it." I probably should have started with a sideplate, rear ramrod pipe, or maybe even a practice plate first. But, I've always been bored cutting practice plates for anything other than borders. So, I just started with the bottom sideplate of the box. That seemed to work out ok, and I just kept going. Not being a natural artist, the hardest part for me is designing the art work. Once that is done the cutting is really fun.
The three flowers are sterling silver. I cut out the silver pieces first, placed them on the brass, scribed around them, and carefully cut out the brass with a jeweler's saw. A little soft solder flowed in from the back joined the silver to the brass. Then, to make the silver stand out from the brass you have to engrave a line around the silver piece.
I hope to finish engraving the lock next week, and then this project will be done. I'll see if Barbie can post more photos, or maybe Art and Jan Riser will want to photograph it at the TN show next month and post the photos on their site.
Thanks again for all the wonderful complements.
Now, it's about time to start fishing again. Ha!
