Hi,
Thanks everyone for looking and commenting! Longknife, I sure agree with you. Davec2, it took a while but much of the time was spent learning and practicing on some old plates to figure out a method for cutting the molding. Once I got going on the Siler, it went pretty fast. I placed the plate on edge in my engraving vise and using a 90 degree square graver, I cut a deep line right at the lower edge of the bevel. My cut was actually on the bevel but right at its lower edge. It is not hard to do but you have to keep the graver perpendicular to the bevel or it tends to wander up the bevel. I then turned the plate on its back and using the line as a guide, cut the shoulder flat with a small flat graver. Now I have a beveled edge with a flat lip at the bottom like Chambers early Germanic lock. To cut the finer upper shoulder, With the plate lying flat, I used my square 90 degree graver to cut a moderately heavy line right at the edge of the top and bevel. It really requires some precise control of the graver to keep the cut right on the edge. Then I repeated the cut but angled the graver toward the bevel to cut away one side of the line creating a tiny shoulder. After that, I cleaned up and smoothed the shoulders with a tiny riffler file. It was not too hard and I certainly will do it again now that I know what I am doing. You probably could use a tiny flat chisel throughout but I found that I could not cut precisely along an edge with the flat. I needed the sharp 90 degree cutter to keep on track.
dave
