Dark or black engraving ?

[Tim Hamblen]

I've been perusing my new copy of Schippers' engraving book.All the engraving is dark or black. Is this something he did to make it show well for pictures or does he (or you folks for that matter) put something in the fresh engraving to make it "pop". Or is this an accumulation of aging and or normal  oiling and cleaning causing this. Just something I've always wondered.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Schippers is a very skilled engraver, and part of his technique is to highlight the cuts by rubbing cold blue onto the fresh brass, and then polishing off the surface to leave the oxided cuts dark.  I never used to use this technique, preferring to see the bright cuts left by the graver, but now I subscribe fully to his method.  Cody Tetachuck told me about this system years ago. 

[Eric Smith]

I was wondering about this effect. Now I know. Thanks Taylor.

[LRB]

  Rustoleum flat black paint also works very well, and no need to polish over fine detail which could be dimished by polishing. The excess Rustoleum can be wiped off, and dries quickly.

[Tom Cooper]

Alot of it can be manipulated with camera angle, also the final polish applied to the graver has alot to do with how the cuts gather and hold light, stopping at 600 to 1200 grit diamond will help to hold the light as opposed to reflecting it.

This picture is camera angle.

[Tim Hamblen]

I got down to actually reading John's book and not just looking at the wonderful pictures. Seems he uses Brass Black by Birchwood Casey. I was also told by Mike Yazel that he uses cold blue for the same effect. I remember once many years ago I was building a Chief's Grade Trade Gun and bought some brass blunderbuss furniture from Dixie. The parts were very appropriate for that gun. They were I believe imported from India or Pakistan and were hand cut engraved, and the cuts had been filled with black paint. I spent hours digging that out with a needle.

[docone]

Liver of sulpher. You can polish off the black on the high spots.
Paint used to darken can be removed with Lye, or Easy Off!. Does not diminish the engraving.

[Jim Kibler]

Liver of sulpher works for darkening silver, but I've not found it to darken anything else I've tried it on.

[Shreckmeister]

Super work on that border...impressive.

Alot of it can be manipulated with camera angle, also the final polish applied to the graver has alot to do with how the cuts gather and hold light, stopping at 600 to 1200 grit diamond will help to hold the light as opposed to reflecting it.

This picture is camera angle.

[Tom Cooper]

Thank you,



Spose the point I was trying to get across is that there is no need to add color to an engraving to view the work.

[Acer Saccharum]

Spose the point I was trying to get across is that there is no need to add color to an engraving to view the work.

Modern 'Bulino' engraving relies entirely on the angle of light and the eye. However, most old engraving on antique guns has tarnished and filled with dirt. No longer does the engraving reflect light out of the cuts. Was it intended to do this when first cut? I don't know. But I like, at this point, engraving that looks old on guns that look old. This is a matter of personal preference, so it's neither right nor wrong, it's just what I like.

[Tom Cooper]

But I like, at this point, engraving that looks old on guns that look old. This is a matter of personal preference, so it's neither right nor wrong, it's just what I like.

I agree to an extent, it really does not take long under normal use for the patina to build up on brass, any darkening agent ( beyond the rustoleum ) requires that the piece be sanded back to limit the color to the engraving and not the surrounding area, as you know this is detrimental to fine engraving.