New guy with some old questions!
Hi everyone,
I've been lurking on this forum for a little while, figured it's time to introduce myself and ask a few questions that have been building up. I'm from South Dakota, love hunting with special priority towards prairie dogs, love long range shooting, rimfires, and doing things myself. I'm a mechanic by trade, grew up in my dad's shop, now working there full time with a wife and little one on the way. Also in the Army National Guard, about 8 years with no deployment so far. I have worked in a gun store, Gat Guns out of Dundee, IL, and always been around guns. I love the look of engraving, and I am going to try my hand at it. I have made gunstocks from scratch, have done enough gunsmithing to call myself an amateur, and have a wife with an art degree to help me draw something worth scratching at.
Now onto my questions. Does anyone have any used books/dvd's that they would sell to help me start off? I plan on beginning by push graving and chasing. I was going to by the Meek book with graver combo from Brownell's, but they are out of the gravers, so I'm looking at GRS's starter kit. Would these be good beginner tools? Brownells offers a mililtary discount that helps, but if they don't have them in stock it doesn't help me much. I plan on practicing with softer metals, and if all goes well I will engrave my 10/22. Being that it is aluminum and pretty flat, I figure it should be a good starting piece.
I've tried to talk my wife into trying it with me, but she likes her drawing and photography enough not to be coerced into making my guns look a little prettier.
On a side note to this long winded run of words, has anyone done any tribal engraving, similar to the popular but, IMHO overdone, tattoos? I have a .22LR bolt action that I'm going to build into a "tactical trainer" and though this would be more fitting design than the classic leaves and scrolls.
Hope someone can help me out with one of the questions, if not I'll keep lurking and learning from all the amazing pictures and posts!
Thanks,
Mitch
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