Tips for Using Engraving Tools

Aug 06, 2024

If you are a beginner who is just getting into carving, and you have purchased what you think are the right tools, but you always feel that your carvings are still not satisfactory. Then you may need some tips to help you grow and progress quickly. The topic of today's post is some tips that beginners need to know about carving using carving tools. Read this article with me if you are interested.

1. Learn to apply enough pressure

It is not an exaggeration to say that the carving beginners in just beginning to contact the carving, the most important thing to learn is how to use the carving tool correctly. Many beginners in the beginning of the use of carving tools do not dare to use too much force, so that the carving out of the work of the sense of hierarchy and texture are not particularly obvious. Naturally, there is a difference between the works carved out by professional carvers and those carved out by professional carvers. Therefore, in the process of carving, you still need to control your strength, do not over-exert yourself, and not too conservative. Moreover, the strength of each carving material is different, for example, different metals have different hardness, so the strength of their application is also different. The appropriate strength needs to rely on your own to continue to practice and practice, and then finally summarize.

2. Make a template before you start

Most of the time, a professional carver will need to prepare a template before carving. Imagine if you were carving on a whim, there would be no way to accurately estimate how long the carving process would take.

3. Necessary exercises

If you want to achieve a sudden improvement in your carving skills in a very short period of time, it is almost impossible. So before you become a professional engraver, the necessary practice is only more but not less. While practicing, you can choose some cheaper metals as your material for practicing. You can choose non-precious metals like copper and brass. This way, even if you make any major mistakes in the process of carving, you can absolutely just polish off or melt down the carving mistakes and practice again.

4. Do a good job of cleaning the engraving material

One of the things you have to do before you start carving is to give the material you are carving a thorough cleaning. As a matter of fact, cleaning the carving material is not as hard as you think. You just need to prepare two things, one is soap and the other is clean water. Make them into soapy water and just make a simple rubbing on the carving material. If you have the means, you can prepare some specialized cleaners. It is important to note here that whether you use soapy water or specialized cleaners, you need to wipe these clean after use. The only time the surface of the engraving material is best suited for engraving is when it is dry.

5. Don't let the engraving head get too hot!

If you are using a specialized engraving machine for your engraving process, then you need to be careful not to keep the engraving machine working for too long. The engraving machine's cutter head generates heat when it rubs against the engraved material over a long period of time. If you let the engraving machine work continuously for a long period of time, it may cause wear and tear on the engraving cutter, and it may also shorten the life of the engraving machine.

6. Increasing difficulty

If you want to keep improving your engraving skills, you will probably need to keep learning more difficult engraving methods. Let's say you've just started learning simple letter carving, which is just a simple two-dimensional carving. If you think you are already very skillful in this area, you can learn more complicated carving methods, such as relief carving, or skeleton carving and other carving methods with a certain difficulty factor.

7. Secure the material you want to carve

During the carving process, you'd better make sure that the material you're carving is completely secured. On the one hand, this ensures that the material will not slide around during the carving process, making it easier for you to carve. On the other hand, engraving knives are actually very sharp, and a little carelessness could hurt your hands. Here you can purchase some jigs to hold your carving material on the table. Or you can purchase a professional engraving ball vise. A ball vise holds the material in place well and is also able to rotate 360° during the carving process. Many carvers choose a ball vise as an aid in their carving process.

8. The right light source is also important

The right light source is also very important in the carving process, too dark or too bright a light is not very suitable. In too dark a light, you may not be able to see the details of the carving at all. Carving in such conditions is neither too efficient nor does it keep you safe. And during the process of setting up your light source, you'd better set the light above or in front of you. This way your view will not be overly obstructed.

9. Ensure that the workbench is tidy

During the engraving process, it is inevitable that there will be some buildup of metal shavings. Excessive metal debris buildup on the surface of the engraved piece is not conducive to your subsequent engraving. Therefore, you need to use a special scraper to remove the excess metal debris from the surface of the engraving material. In addition, you need to clean up the ash layer on your tool bench if it has accumulated. Lastly, a bench that is too cluttered is not conducive to your engraving work. So you'd better organize your carving tools after using them .