Amazing Castings.

[jerrywh]

 I just received my castings from Ron Scott Of the Laubach Jager   It is hard to believe that engravings of this quality could be done in the 18th Century.  This is proof to me that they had some real good visual aids back then. Nobody could have done this engraving without some pretty good magnification. Amazing stuff. I am going to post this on the Engravers cafe. There are Master engravers today that cannot do this.

[Buffaload]

No doubt Jerry,
They were doing some amazing work with lenses in the early 1600s.  I am sure by 1700 the technology was quite advanced and widespread in Europe.
Ed

[bama]

I agree 100% Jerry. I have had the opportunity to see some 18th century engraving that without magnification you could not see all of the delicate engraving today and it was not because of wear. They had to of had some kind of magnification, what that was I have no clue. I know hand held loopes are used by some of the master's in Europe and I think that maybe this is what was used back in the day. The only problem with this theory is you can not hold a loope, hammer and chisel at the same time. This leads me to believe that they hand pushed most of the the delicate engraving. Now, I am not saying that hammer and chisel was not used, it most certainly was but not all of the time. I would love to learn more about how to hand pushed engraving and engraver geometry for hand pushed engraving. Do you have any expertise in the hand pushed engraving Technic?

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

You have to use two hands to push engrave, at least, I do.  The second hand acts as a brake.  Otherwise, you would get run aways all over the place.  Can you post a few images here, Jerry?

[Flint62Smoothie]

It is my belief the loupe or magnifying lens was placed in front of their master eye by a brass support hung around their neck or perhaps from their head. By then, lenses had existed for a while. That support concept is similar to lenses mounted on a brass ring, placed an inch or two above a chart, that a sea captain could use when reviewing charts. Any support to an eye loupe magnifier would certainly have allowed any master/guild craftsman to use both hands.

-Roger Bacon described the properties of a magnifying glass in 13th-century England.

-Eyeglasses were developed in 13th-century Italy.

-Though contact lenses seem to be a recent phenomenon, the famous Italian architect, mathematician and inventor Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) produced the first known sketches (in 1508) that suggested the optics of the human eye could be altered by placing the cornea directly in contact with water.

[JTR]

  Amazing stuff. I am going to post this on the Engravers cafe.

Jerry, did you get the pics posted? I looked but didn't find them.
Thanks, John

[Jerry V Lape]

Watched an Italian engraver working on sidelock of very high end shotgun.  He was holding a lens about 2 1/2" diameter in left hand and pushing the graver with his right.  Appeared to be pulling the graver sideways part of the time.  Couldn't tell what the strokes were producing from my angle.  May have just been adding shading.