Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorative object in itself, as when silver or gold are engraved, or may provide an intaglio plate, when copper is engraved, or a relief print block when wood is engraved.

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Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types. The burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a slightly curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, used to do fill work on larger areas. Flat gravers are used for doing fill work on letters, as well as most musical instrument engraving work. Round gravers are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts, as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Burins are either square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines. Other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects.

Silver: :This page is about silver the element. For the color, see silver (color)....

Gold: Gold is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Au (L. aurum) and atomic number 79. A soft, shiny, yellow, heavy, malleable, ductile (trivalent and univalent) transition metal, gold does not react with most chemicals but is attacked by chlorine, fluorine and aqua regia. The meta...

Intaglio: Intaglio (printmaking) is a printmaking technique in which the image is incised into a surface....

Engraving related Images and Photos (experimental)

Engraving Entitled "The Mother"	The Engraving Amateur	Engraving after Van Dyck	Stone Engraving Angkor Wat Temple Cambodia
Engraving of Apothecary Alexandria Virginia	Dedicatory Engraving to Gottfried Finger	Striking Engraving of the Eruption of 1669	Hand Colored Engraving of a Duck 1766
Oeuvres Poissardes Engraving circa 1795	La Toilette Engraving by Louis Marin Bonnet	An Engraving of King Cheer Enjoying Christmas Festivities	Engraving of Vesuvius Erupting from Mundus Subterraneus