Phil Coggan

[ron]

hi Rich .. yes this is the same Chris , i don't always get his name spelled right .. and I agree with you on having Phil come to the states and give us some classes .. ron p

[Phil Coggan]

Originally Posted by ron

hi Rich .. yes this is the same Chris , i don't always get his name spelled right .. and I agree with you on having Phil come to the states and give us some classes .. ron p

Maybe one day
Phil

[Rich Hambrook]

Mr. Coggan,
That is fantastic. I will except the "Maybe someday" for now. I will keep working on you and Steve Lindsay. Maybe all of us here can beg hard enough to make this happen. I am getting excited already.:willy_nilly: How can we make this happen.
Rich

[PS_Bond]

Originally Posted by Phil Coggan

Peter,
I don't know where you'd buy printing ink. A long time ago I called in to a printers and they gave me a can that they said was going off, it's lasted me all these years! I would'nt worry too much if you can't get any, artists oil colour is just as good.

Cheers Phil - I've got some oils around somewhere...

[Phil Coggan]

Peter,
You'll find that the thinners dries the oil paint very quickly, make sure you get the right consistency, and its possible if your very careful to add different colours to different parts of your work.
What are you going to ink up?

(Quote)
Mr. Coggan,
That is fantastic. I will except the "Maybe someday" for now. I will keep working on you and Steve Lindsay. Maybe all of us here can beg hard enough to make this happen. I am getting excited already. How can we make this happen.
Rich


Steve and I are working on that double act, but we can't decide who's going to be the straight man!


Phil

[JayCanale]

Phil,

I am new to the engraving world and will be starting my first class in another 5 days. Your work blows my mind! Fantastic! And you say it's 'scratching' ? ha ha I hope my scratches come out 1/4 good as yours!

Thanks for sharing,
Jay

[Phil Coggan]

Jay,
The trick is to have a really sharp nail pushed into an old piece of broom handle.
Phil

[Rich Hambrook]

Is holding the mouth right important as well? If it is, Phil can you take a close up portrait of yourself?
Rich

[Steve Lindsay]

You know that the secret to engraving is holding your tongue just right. You can tell this boy is going to be a very good engraver.

[Phil Coggan]

[Phil Coggan]

Some more pics for those that are interested, No. 2 & 3 were engraved round about the 80's.

Phil

[kcrutcher]

Phil

When I log on to the forum this is the first place I look.

The pictures are beautiful and I am certainly interested.

I hope I am not being to presumptuous, do you mind a few questions.

In the scene where two lions are fighting?

How is the metal finished to preclude rusting?

After you have scratched the scene (your words) do I understand you to say you put Ink/Paint in the scratches.

And lastly are they really scratches, cuts or punch marks or all three?

Thank you very much I really do enjoy your posts.

Kenneth Crutcher

[GaryW]

Phil; I have been away from the forum for quite some time, something to do with paying the bills. I have missed so much. There is nothing I can add to what's already been said about your work except I could sit for hours and admire it in close detail. I am primarily a jeweler by trade, and a decent commercial engraver as well so I really didn't have much to offer you in the way of advice till now, but a few posts back you asked about refining methods. This is my area. I started refining my own scrap in the late 70's. True, most commercial refiners use the acid or cyanide method, there is an alternate method that is safe and relatively inexpensive. Using a salt bath and electrolysis you can recover three 9's fine from up to a kilo of scrap. the only thing is you won't be able to recover the alloy. The system works with minimal user attention so it won't disrupt your work schedule, and doesn't give off any toxic fumes. I've listed the website of the company that makes the kit. Also if you contact a refiner such as Hoover & Strong here in the states, they have many alloys for just about any application. They even have a peach color alloy ( could be interesting for inlays) Anyway, I hope this helps, and if I could be of any further assistance, my e-mail is perkinsgaryw@embarqmail.com contact me any time.
Keep up the posting, it's very inspiring
Thanks, Gary


http://www.ishor.com/refining.htm

[ron]

hi Phil .. the 2 ducks look very striking , they look like they are ready to jump off of the action ,, did you carve them from 1 piece of gold sheet or are the 2 separate pieces .. thanks again for posting your photos , and again when is your book coming out .. ron p

[Phil Coggan]

Ken,
The gun with the lions fighting is still in the white, when the engraving is finished it goes back to the makers who then send it for colour hardening, it then comes back to me to polish this off, ink up and then laquering, this is what protects the steel.
The game scene is all 'cut' I don't really scratch or punch anything.

Gary,
Thanks for that good information, my real interest at the moment is alloying gold to produce different colours, i'll chat with you later.

Ron,
The ducks can be inlayed as one, or as two items, it depends on what space you have on a sheet to cut down on the wastage.

Thanks all for your interest.

Phil

[Rich Hambrook]

Phil,
I too have a million questions. What are all the precious metals you are using in the multi colored inlays. I believe I can pick most of them out and have inlayed most of them myself.....but some of them are (for a lack of better words) a bitch to set. What is your trick. I cringe whenever I have to inlay stuff like rose, yellow or any harder colored metal. I will save most of my other questions for when I take your class.:smilie5: Is this class going to be just one week? I am sure there are a bunch of us that need to make plans!:yesnod:
Thank you so much for the information and inspiration!
Rich

[Phil Coggan]

Rich,
I have an answer for one of those million questions, inlaying red gold, i'm sure I went in to it on this forum but you'll have to search back a few pages!

Phil

[Danny C]

Have to add my 2 cents.
You bring a wealth of talent to this forum. Here we see AND share. Many want to be seen only. You want to do both - that is rare.

I really like your use of amount and "volumn" of scroll and scene and the use of negative space. When done right it is really RIGHT! You do it exceptionally well. Course, I really like that type of engraving, not filling the space but not too empty either. And the colors and background black really set it all off.

Masterfully done.

VOLUMN - can't think of a better word. Its the size of the actual scroll work and associated detail that defines it.

[Phil Coggan]

Thanks Danny,
You know when you design scrollwork the blank areas are equally as important as the engraved ones, it's like drawing a tree, the patterns of the empty areas between the branches should enhance the overall picture.
The trick is to get the right balance.

Phil

[ron]

hi Phil .. do you ever use copper for your inlays and if so how do you get the gun parts re blued , i was told that a gun smith cannot re blue a gun that has copper inlays ,i would like to try some of it on the colts that i engraver and gold inlay .. ron p

[Phil Coggan]

Ron,
Copper is not a problem, as you know it's a lot softer than red and you can fill small areas in with wire.
The only thing you have to be carefull with is, after hardening, it's usually bright but sometimes it has some oxyidation, it's easily removed but if the gun is coloured it can be a bit tricky.
You also have to de-grease the gun before laquering, I usually wash it over with thinners or acitone.

Phil

[ron]

hi Phil , thanks for your reply , I think the next Colt I do I will add some copper and silver to the scroll .. Ron p

[Rich Hambrook]

Phil,
Thank you for your response. I haven't had a chance to really dig deep and read this thread in its entirety as I plan to do so in the near future. I am sure you understand how busy life gets. I just wanted to back up what Danny said earlier about how fantastic it is to have magnificent people like yourself communicating and educating with us here on this forum. I have been told that in the past Masters like yourself didn't readily share their knowledge. That has changed significantly because of people like yourself. This is why the beautiful art of hand engraving has taken leaps and bounds recently. Not only from a overall talent aspect but community awareness as well. When can we expect to see your son Simon chime in on this thread. He is unbelievably great as well. I guess the saying "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is true. He and I have something in common......we were born in the same year. It's not much in common but its a start.
Thanks again Mr. Coggan
Rich Hambrook

[Phil Coggan]

Originally Posted by Rich Hambrook

Phil,
That has changed significantly because of people like yourself. This is why the beautiful art of hand engraving has taken leaps and bounds recently. Not only from a overall talent aspect but community awareness as well. When can we expect to see your son Simon chime in on this thread. Rich Hambrook

Engraving has really taken off in the USA, but as far as I know, not in the UK, also with forums etc. I don't know how many engravers there are here, I only speak to two!

I don't think Simon will be 'chiming in, it's not his bag.

Phil

[lylekelley3]

Mr Coggan - your engraving is wonderful. The detail on the muscles and feathers is incredible. I was wondering, do you do any of the wood carving? or does someone else take care of that on the guns you engrave? Just wondering, how much of the artistic skill translates to the different mediums.

Thanks again for showing your work!

Lyle

[Phil Coggan]

Lyle,
The guns I engrave do not have any of the wood carved, having said that I have carved wood in the past, but not on guns, and at one time I did quite a lot of oil painting, landscapes and portraits.

Phil

[Danny C]

I think you ought to change your company name to MASTER SCRATCHER!

I've looked here many times - and each time it is amazing!

You are definetly one of the best around.

[Phil Coggan]

One for you Danny

[Gene Tru]

This is absolutely beautiful Phil,
I've only experimented with silver wire inlay onto a steel plate. (not good contrast I know), but what seems so amazing to me is the amount of inlay on a gun such as this. There is more gold than gun metal showing. Inlays range from wide, such as in the birds, to very thin such as in the tiny scrolls and leaves. Then, if that isn't enough, a lot of it seems to be sculptured.
Truely a piece of art,
Gene

[Dave London]

Phil
I am Speechless, Fantastic. Thanks for showing:whoo:

[Danny C]

Just amazing!
Thanks for the "special" pic.

Its a perfect mix - not all of one kind of engraving style.

[jjdon]

I'll add first that Phil's work is incredible!!

As far as "refining" gold, I could elaborate on that. I suspect that Phil doesn't really want to refine gold at all, he wants to do custom alloys and the like (I suspect). Refining is recovering gold from ore, scrap or sweeps - I don't do that either. What I do is recycle my gold and alloy my own, which is easy. I work over a clean newspaper and save every little bit and clean up between each change in metal. Then I just melt it down and re-use it - I keep it meticulously clean and run a magnet through it every time. Here: http://www.artjewelrymag.com/ART/Def...px?c=a&id=1036 is a handy calculator for how much metal to use for alloying up or down (it does NOT matter if it's white or yellow, like they say). That's easy, too.
All that is easy, though it's expensive to experiment with gold alloys. The hard part is what to do next - you have a lump of gold and you need sheet, wire or what-have-you. In a real shop that would mean a rolling mill and drawplates (and a knowlege of those and annealing, too). The old fashioned way is hammer, anvil and elbow grease. I've done that, it's not so bad once or twice. You can get a gold coin and melt it with copper, which gives you a lump of rose or red gold. The thing is, what do you do with that? If one has a shop like that, it's easy, if one doesn't it's not so simple.
Again, great work and great thread, too.

[Omar Haltam]

Hello Everyone

It is very humbling to be in the same room with all of you great artists, and thank you for the Inspiring photos Mr. Coggan

Omar