How did the original masters hold their engraving work?

[Lone Wolf]

These days we have things like precisely machined ball vises and use substances like bondo and thermo plastic to mould our engraving work, but how did the original masters do it?  Did they simply engrave their metal on the rifles, or did they have basic methods to do their engraving before installation?

[Jakob]

They used pitch. (Well, jewellers have used pitch in ages, I'd assume gunmakers would do the same)

[davec2]

https://www.riogrande.com/product/pitch-bowl-base-and-pitch-kit/118071GP/?code=118071

[smoke and flames]

For Patch boxes and some inlays if not done on the rifle, just screw it down on to a piece of scrap wood to put in your bench vise.  When possible keep it simple and cheap.

[Lone Wolf]

Is pitch re-usable, or is it once and done like bondo?

[James Rogers]

Reusable.  I use a heat gun to heat the pitch in my pitch pot, place the part in the melt and let it harden again.

[Joe R]

It looks like Rio Grande’s pitch comes in at least two colors. Are they the same product or is there a useful difference in one versus the other?

[kutter]

For small , thin pieces (like wedge plates, etc) you can use Sealing Wax.
(Envelope Seal and Document Seal wax impression)

A Jewelery Engravers 'trick' of sorts to hold similar small fragile items while engraving.

The wax comes in sticks with a wick in it usually like a candle. Light the wick and let some of the wax drip into a pool onto a suitible surface like a piece of wood that you can work on.

The wax if still warm enough, you can push the wedge plate or what ever part into it and as it cools it will adhere nicely for you.
If cooled,,heat the part and push it into the cooled off wax.
Do your engraving.
When done heat the part back up gently and it will drop off of the wax.
I used to hold the part up close to a pre-Al Gore filiment light bulb. The heat more than enough to make the part loosen and drop free.

Same idea as the Pitch Bowl. Less holding power though so for smaller items. The sealing wax sticks are cheap at art supply type stores.
The puddle of wax left on the piece of wood is reuseable over and over, or add to it, etc.

I engrave some of the parts while inletted in the wood. That's a real pain as I have to stand and engrave. Not a favorite of mine.
Moving around a LR from end to end is no fun.
I rather like to just attach patch boxes, butt plates and the like to a piece of wood simply roughed out to form and the part screwed down in place.