Author Topic: Cleaning up cast in engraving  (Read 2466 times)

Offline Dr. Tim-Boone

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Cleaning up cast in engraving
« on: October 30, 2009, 03:56:16 PM »
Someplace recently I saw a thread or paper on the topic of how to clean up/deepen cast in engraving. My oldtimers disease has kicked in and I can't remember where.....

The thing is I just got the cast standing breech and thimbles from The Rifle Shoppe for the rifle I am building and they have the fine English engraving cast in????????

What is best to do with these to make it look right?
De Oppresso Liber
Marietta, GA

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. – William Allen White

Learning is not compulsory...........neither is survival! - W. Edwards Deming

keweenaw

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Re: Cleaning up cast in engraving
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2009, 04:24:20 PM »
Tim,

That cast in English scroll is going to be hard to "clean up" as the very fine details are going to get blurred when you do the basic surface polish necessary for the flat areas.  If you want to try, what you're going to use are smooth Arkansas stones and lots of honing oil.  A particularly useful stone is a conical that is ground to a fine tapered tip that you can get down in the graver cuts.  No matter how careful you are in doing this cleaning up the end result is going to look like it had cast in engraving and will not "look right."  If you're only talking about the standing breech and a few other pieces, a much, much better bet that your cleaning this up would be to have an engraver recut it for you.  This is the only thing that is going to make them look right.  It will cost a bit - depending on how much engraving and the detail of the pattern maybe a couple hundred - but you'll be a lot happier in the end.  You should talk to your engraver first, but they are generally much happier if you do all the basic polishing - to worn 400 grit.  What you're doing in this is polishing the piece as if it were plain steel that was being prepared for engraving and basically ignoring the engraving that's cast in.  Those little flat areas in the pattern have to be polished anyway.  Smoke print it first to get a good impression of the original engraving.  To do this run the piece in a candle flame to get a nice layer of soot on it and then put a piece of scotch tape or clear, thin packaging tape on it and evenly smooth it down.  Pull the tape off and put it on a piece of white paper.  Instant copy with lots of detail for the engraver to work from in addition to what's left after the polishing.

Tom

Offline Dr. Tim-Boone

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Re: Cleaning up cast in engraving
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2009, 04:40:06 PM »
Tom,
Thanks,

thought that might be the case. I am actually going to have the lock, buttplate, sideplate and barrel engraved as well as the standing breech and thimbles..

Making the smoke print is a great idea!

The person I have selected to do the engraving is very accomplished and he may find it easier to just start from scratch....but I would like it to be his choice.  He is very good at the English style.
De Oppresso Liber
Marietta, GA

Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. – William Allen White

Learning is not compulsory...........neither is survival! - W. Edwards Deming

Offline smart dog

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Re: Cleaning up cast in engraving
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2009, 09:57:59 PM »
Hi Tim,
Recutting cast-in engraving is the only effective method.  I usually file off all the cast-in stuff and do my own.  Cast-in chiseling in relief can be cleaned up with polishing sticks and 3-M bristle burrs.  The bristle burrs are pinwheel shaped abrasive disks that fit on a mandrel.  You can use a Dremel tool as the power source. They are great for polishing crevices and irregular shapes without rounding off corners very much.  However, like all power polishing they will round things off a little, which is why I use them only on chiselled relief in places where it doesn't really matter.

dave
"The main accomplishment of modern economics is to make astrology look good."