[WVEngraver]

It would definitely be a great benefit to learn through your experience. It is a fascinating process indeed.

The acid etching step is an important step because it creates the ultra soft lines and super light grays that the human hand and graver can not achieve. That is illustrated in both the Lady Liberty scope shot and the Hogarth, partially engraved, acid etch.

In the bank note and securities industry, acid etching had an even more important role and that was "security".


Bank-note engraving for decorative purposes ... as I will be attempting with the Gustave Dore' woodcut conversion, there's no need to acid etch. The key word is "decorative". After tracing the main lines to be scribed onto a transparency, I'll scan that in and resize. Then re-print onto a transparency and transfer to steel. Scribe then cut.

I can learn the hand engraving techniques and achieve a comparable level of quality and detail.

I thought I would mention this because the actual process is intimidating and very time consuming. By simplifying it to use transparencies, anyone can set out to try it.