Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Biggs
Hi Phil
My first book about engraving was James Meek’s “The Art of Engraving” and that got me hooked.
The second book was “British Gun Engraving” It was seeing your exquisite work and that of the Brown Brothers and Ken Hunt and all the others that really opened my eyes as to how high a standard and artistic levels that engraving could go to. It’s still my main reference book to this day
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Hi Andrew,
It was more or less the same for me, but I was interested in flintlock guns, at that time I could'nt afford to buy them so I tought myself to make them.
Knowing nothing about engraving I experimented with different tools I had made until I found one that would cut! ( Not many books about then. )
After a while my interest focused more on engraving, it was a lot easier than making the guns, you see I did'nt have access to milling machines etc, So it was all hacksaw and files!
It was'nt until I saw one of Mario Abbiatico's first books 'Modern Firearm Engraving'.
that I realalized what engraving was all about. The next problem was, how does one produce 'black' and 'grey' as in the photos? Anyway without boring you too much I practiced and practiced and finally sent some plates to Mario, he liked them and included them and some other work of mine in his next book 'L'incisione delle Armi Sportive'. You'll see a very young PC in there, and note the vice, an ordinary engineers one! My engraving studio....my kids bedroom!
Phil