Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Hand engraving
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hand Engraving in metalworking is the act of carving decorative or functional grooves into a substrate, usually a metal plate, using hand tools such as small chisels called burin or gravers.
Each graver is different and has its own use. There are round gravers which make round cuts, and 90 degree gravers which make right angle cuts, just to name a few. These gravers have very small cutting points; some cut lines as small as 1mm wide. A 3mm wide line is a huge cut for a hand engraver, and an average size cut would be slightly larger than the period in normal typeset text.
Most hand engraving is used to personalize or embellish jewelry, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers. Hand engraving is also used in printmaking to make engravings, and is notably still used for the plates for printing money, checks, bonds and other security sensitive papers, because the engraving is so fine that a normal printer can not recreate the detail of hand engraved images, nor can it be scanned. In the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, more than one hand engraver will work on the same plate, making it nearly impossible for one person to duplicate all the engraving on a particular banknote or document.