Hi all,
Here's my introduction...
I'm 37, living in Nashville, Tennessee, but have spent most of my life in Oregon. I am a life-long music enthusiast who specializes in saxophone. When I was around 15, I saw my very first engraved saxophone in a photo, and it completely blew me away! I couldn't believe how beautiful engraving looked on an instrument, and it totally inspired me. Being the young and intrepid lad I was, I found the first sharp thing I could (and old broken chair leg that had a metal point embedded in it) and started "engraving" my alto sax. I then found my step-dad's electric engraver and tried that with a little better results. I was discouraged enough by the sad appearance that I gave up trying to do it on instruments. Instead, I focused on drawing the patterns, and inventing my own. I became obsessed with this for literally 10 years, drawing patterns all over everything I got my hands on. I also occasionally broke out the electric engraver and tried it out again, with the same poor-quality results.
Everything changed in 1998 when I visited the Elkhart, Indiana home of Selmer instruments and saw a demonstration of hand engraving with the proper tools. It lasted all of 5 minutes, but I remembered every detail of how she held the tool, how it moved, and such. But, I had no idea where one found such tools, nor how one would learn such a thing.
Years passed, and I kept drawing. My drawings became better and better, until I could duplicate virtually any engraving pattern I saw. I found the James Meek book, as well as some other books on the subject and was really excited, but again had no tools.
Finally, I happened upon a set of tools on eBay in 2002! I bought them and immediately began destroying my beloved 1939 Selmer alto with them -- as well as stabbing myself repeatedly in the learning process. I learned the hard way that there's no glove in the world that can stop a graver when it slips. I also learned there's no good way to work on brass instruments in a vise, so you're stuck holding it and working it at the same time.
Once I had the basic "zig zag" or walking stroke with a flat graver down, I tried my hand engraving a baritone sax, and amazingly it turned out relatively good. I quickly damaged the tips on my gravers and had to learn sharpening (picture Charlton Heston shaking his fist at the sky angrily here!), which was... completely maddening. Finally, I discovered E. C. Muller/Lyons and purchased a ton of gravers that I could work on to try and get it right.
Over the next few years, I got the courage up to start working on other people's horns. Unfortunately, I still hadn't gotten my technique right, and frequently impaled my left hand. I also discovered how inconsistent and difficult brass (and especially curved brass surfaces) are to work with. I made some colossal boo-boos on other people's instruments, but got good at working them into the pattern.
Nowadays, I do pretty good with the flat gravers. I have even started into straight push cuts, but have not had the proper tools. One of the things I am hoping to learn through participating here is how to do this the right way, and hopefully make my way into the world of steel engraving.
It's so refreshing to find other people as obsessed with this art as me. It makes me feel a lot less crazy!
Below are some examples of my work. You can also search YouTube for saxophone engraving and see a few videos I made. I welcome feedback, tips, tricks, or whatever. I am just thrilled to be here!
An old project:
My most recent projects:
I am so obsessed with engraving that I even engraved the beach when I was there last:
There are a ton more photos on my website and also on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8770912@N04/