If you are just starting to contact the carving, you are not always feel clearly their carving tools are not very bad, also watched a lot of tutorials, but always can not achieve their ideal results? In fact, there are some you have not been exposed to the carving skills in the limit your play. Today, this article to tell you how to make your carving works look more like a professional carving out of the works.
However, before you carve, you’d better make sure that your carving tools are right for you, such as whether you want to choose to use purely handmade carving tools like hammers and chisels or carving instruments like pneumatic engravers. This way you can learn these carving techniques better or they will be useful for you.
1. Apply some pressure
When you are engraving metal, you must be applying a certain amount of pressure in order to be able to engrave a layered pattern. Of course, the purpose of applying pressure to the engraving tool is to be able to make the force on the engraving material more even. Different engraving materials require different forces. Like gold this metal texture is relatively soft, so carving up the natural need to spend the force is not very big. Metals like cobalt are more laborious to carve, and you may even need to use a small hammer as your aid.
2. Use professional templates
If you are engraving and you realize that the pattern you are engraving is always different from what you initially envisioned, you need to consider whether or not you want to make a template that is similar to the pattern you want to engrave. For example, if you want to carve your name, then you can print out the name you want to carve (it’s a good idea to make sure the size is the same). This can be used as a guide for you to follow as you carve.
3. Keep practicing
Before carving, it is best that you are able to spend as much time as possible practicing how to carve. The best way to learn how to use a carving tool when you want to learn how to use it is to use it constantly. Here you can choose some discarded metal material and then carve some simple lines or letters on it.
4. You need to do a good job of cleaning
Before you officially start engraving, you need to make sure that your engraving material is completely cleaned. This is because stains on the engraving material may subsequently have an effect on the engraving process. For example, if there are oil stains on the metal that you are engraving on, then the tool may slip during the engraving process. However, while some engraving materials can be cleaned with just soap and water, some engraving materials need to be cleaned with specialized cleaning products in order to clean them.
5. Do not engrave metal in an overheated environment
During the engraving process, heat will be generated between the engraving tool and the engraved material. That’s why you’d better not continue engraving for a long time, which may damage the machine. So even if you really enjoy carving, you still need to take a break after working for a while. Allow the engraving knife of the engraving machine to have ample time to cool down. You don’t have to worry about this taking too much of your time though, the wait for cooling down is usually not very long.
6. Exploring the Difficulty of Carving
Generally, most of the engraving is just centered around 2D images, which means simply engraving some letters or some simple patterns. If you want your engraving skills to improve further, you can further explore different engraving options, such as the engraving of 3D patterns, and other engraving techniques such as relief engraving. Although these carving patterns may sound difficult, if you keep practicing these difficult carving techniques, then in the near future, your carving skills will surely improve qualitatively.
7. Secure the material
While you’re carving, it’s a good idea to secure your carving material to prevent it from shifting during subsequent carvings. This may not only damage your carving but may also hurt your hands. So, it is best that you make sure that your carving material is in a completely fixed state during the carving process. Also, for some heavy objects that you need to use while carving, such as a large wrench, you just need to place it on the table.
8. Let’s start with a rough image
When you’re carving, you can’t carve the general pattern and then carve the details at the same time. The usual sequence is to wait until you have finished the general pattern before you proceed to the careful carving of the details. This is because once you have finished carving the outline, the subsequent details are just icing on the cake.
9. Light source for engraving
Engraving in poorly lit areas is definitely not a good option. This is because engraving in a poorly lit environment is very unsafe and there is no guarantee that your subsequent engraving is done efficiently. That’s why it’s very important to choose a working environment with good lighting. In addition, if you really can’t find a place with sufficient light, you can also choose some good lighting equipment to make up for these shortcomings.
10. Removing dust from the engraving process
In the process of engraving there will inevitably be some metal shavings or some other dust, in order to prevent this dust from gathering on the engraving material. What you need to do is to keep blowing off this dust, or take a brush to brush this dust away. This will not only ensure that your engraving material is clean, but also ensure that you can see your engraving situation very clearly during the engraving process.
