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Old 08-31-2012, 04:25 PM
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Chris Botha Chris Botha is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Australia, Melbourne
Posts: 322
Default interesting perspective

I stumbled onto this website on my travels and was interested to learn that the slamming of CAD and CNC by traditional "hand makers" in the jewellery world is also prevalent in the engraving world, with "traditionalists" considering air tools not to be valid. Having tried to teach myself this skill I cannot concur with the authors view that anyone can pick up an air tool and create "fine lines that are lacking in hand".. an artist can create art, simple. and it makes no difference what tool he holds IMO..



Quote:
Why authentic hand engraving? The many years required to develop the hand and eye coordination necessary for traditional hand engraving cannot be avoided. Electric powered or compressed air "engraving" tools wedded to a 20x micrcroscope will cut a lot of very narrow lines with a minimum amount of skill required by the operator. The claim that employing an electric or air powered tool is "hand engraving" is inaccurate from the perspective of the general public. For example, "hand polished" is not the result of polishing using a polishing wheel because the part is held in the hand.
His views are neither here nor nor there, I come up against this all the time in my area of expertise. it was intersting for me tho how far along the technology path you need to be to be considered NOT hand made.

So is this the path from REAL hand engraving to NOT hand engraving

1: Scratch grooves in a rock face with a stone
2: Scratch grooves in wood and stone with forged steel
3: scratch grooves in wood and stone and alloyed metals with forged metal
4: Same as 3 but with a hammer.
5: Airgraver Assist FREEHAND no patterns
6: AirGraver over a transfer DRAWN BY HAND
7: Airgraver over internet download transfer
8: CNC scribe then Airgraver of YOUR HAND DRAWN art
9: CNC Scribe then Airgraver of other art
10: CNC Engrave outright of own artwork (roland mpx, impact, laser etc)
11: CNC Engrave outright of other artwork (roland mpx, impact, laser etc)


Slippery slope of what exactly defines hand engraving? I draw the line at excluding 11 completely and #10 is iffy depending on whether you consider drawing the artwork as being "hand skills".. would it be less hand skilled if you used a computer graphics program to draw the art?

just a thought
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