New member in Maine

[Georgette]

I am new to this forum and to this engraving, not new to art. I live in Maine and would love to be in contact with any engravers in my area. I appreciate all the help I can get as this is something I have wanted to do for many years and am now ready to jump in and learn all that I can to get me there. I appreciate any ideas, tips, tricks, etc. Check out my web site to see what I do and find out a bit about me, www.mainenatureart.com , thanks, hope to hear from many of you.

[SEngraver]

HI Georgette,

Welcome to the Engraving Forum.

Your work is amazing and I can only say you just have to change the medium and you will be engraving various metals.
What do you wish to engrave ?

SE

[Georgette]

Good morning and thank you, I wish to do it all....I just love the look of it, but I basically want to do knives, guns and jewelry. As you can see from my web site I do not just do one thing and most likely my engraving will be the same. I would love to take some classes to get me going in the right direction but can't afford to travel far from home right now, that is why I would like to find someone close to me.

[lusiba]

Dear Members,

Great thanks to the funder of this forum.

Allow me to introduce myself, am Robert Lusiba Ssibuulirwa, the National chairperson, Electronics Technicians Association (www.electronics-technicians.org) I live in Uganda.

We are of great interest to acquire used engraving machines for use by our members at their various electronics workshops to engrave customer equipment especially computers, printers, laptops and projectors.

Our biggest challenge has been purchasing online at Ebay as they need paypal and hardly ship to africa.

We are of interest to deal with members that can ship to Uganda and also provide online technical assistance where need arises.

[SEngraver]

HI,

This is an a great place to start....;

http://www.engravingschool.com/

Meeting engravers near you is a great idea under the circumstances;
Try the members list;

http://www.engravingforum.com/memberlist.php

Someone will get in touch as they read your post.

SE

[JJ Roberts]

Georgette,to the forum,I went deer hunting in Maine back in the 60's beautiful state.Like your web site J.J.

[Georgette]

Thanks JJ, I do love my state, our deer population is down right now but it is still great to get out and about in the woods up here. I did my first practice piece, am pretty happy with it and know that I need to practice more and more, but love doing it and will get there quickly. I am sure all the members here will be very helpful. How do you go about posting a photo on this, it is asking for a url, I can't figure that out????

[JJ Roberts]

Georgette,I'm not the one for answers when it come to posting or taking photos,it's been a hit & miss thing with me.How long have you been engraving? You'll find it very friendly & helpful on this forum. J.J.

[Georgette]

I have been doing my art for many years, like at least 40, many different things. I bought some used "engraving" equipment about 4 or 5 years ago and have been extremely intimidated but it, so it has just sat around, I finally have had enough of it sitting and just decided to jump in. I have gathered most of what I need in those years, bit by bit. I was going to state engraving in 09 but came down with cancer and that really was not a good thing, now that I am back to being myself it is time to get into it. I did my first piece yesterday and am quite happy with it, I know it is not perfect and my lines are not uniform or in nice rounds but all in all I like the way it came out. I would post a picture of it but am not sure why they are asking for a url, can't figure that one out. You are in England?

[Georgette]

Can someone tell me how to post photos? I don't have any idea what they are asking for when they ask for a url

[Georgette]

JJ, sorry about thinking you were in England, I just checked and see that you are in Va. and are the one who came to Maine to go hunting, guess it has been a long day for me and I am getting sleepy, with the help of my sisters blueberry wine, :-). As soon as I can figure out how to post a photo I will put a picture of my first piece on, like I said it is pretty raw, but I will be doing better soon. Am trying to figure out everything, set up, etc. I want to make myself one of the things to put my vise on that I can attach a motor to or use my feet to turn. Right now it is not as comfy as I would like, and so it makes my hand not steady, as I am deep and shallow so have to get that figured out. Wish I has some guru over my shoulder barking at me when I do it wrong, :-)

[JJ Roberts]

Georgette,If you lived near me I could give some advice on how to get started,don't know of any engravers in Maine.If you keep asking questions you'll find lots of help here on the Lindsay forum many talented folks here.Keep us posted.J.J.

[Georgette]

I have a question for you seasoned engravers. How do you go about pricing your work? Someday when I get to be good enough to sell my work I have no clue how I will price it, do you have an hourly rate or a job rate? I am sure everyone has a different means to doing this but you must pretty much try to gear around a similar amount. What's the discussion on this, thanks.

[DKanger]

Georgette,
I don't know your location or how close you are to New Hampshire, but I would suggest you contact David Price to see if he could help you.

http://www.davidpriceflintlocks.com/index.html

David is a true gentleman and has given freely of his knowledge for many years. While he is a gunbuilder, he is also an accomplished engraver. He gives free seminars every year on a variety of subjects at the National Muzzleloading matches in Friendship, IN and has written a number of free tutorials on various subjects. I'm sure a beginning engraving class wouldn't be out of the question for him, and would "probably" be very inexpensive.

[Georgette]

I am not that far from NH, I will check out the link you enclosed for me to see exactly where he is located, thank you very much. I can use all the help I can get and appreciate all the information from all the forum people.

[Georgette]

Hey gang, I have been doing my reading, studying and watching of videos, all the things I am suppose to do, I guess, so now that I want to put a design on a piece of practice metal, I am having a bit of a problem, the pattern is not coming out a good as I would like, having a hard time to see all the detail. I tried the acetone transfer and I tried with the transfer wax, neither did a great job, what am I missing here. I don't want to guess on half of my design.

[airamp]

Hi,

Here is a link to the transfer methods I and others have used.

Personally i use laser transfer method with my white shellac mix and it works great..

There are others for injet (Tom Whites solutions (clear and white).

Link:

http://www.engravingschool.com/private/transfers.htm

AirAmp

[Georgette]

Thank you, it has been a struggle with everything, but this I could not figure out. My Mom and brother and sister and her family live in Mesa, I have been out there and love Scottsdale, what beautiful country you people have out there, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks again for all the help.
Georgette
www.mainenatureart.com

[Georgette]

OK, more questions....as I look in my tool box, I find many different kind of gravers, which is a good thing. I have sharpened the 90 and 120? But find that I have a few flats and some very sharp ones, like a knife from GRS, they have different numbers on them, do these numbers mean anything special, these are already shaped from the factory, now do I have to do anything more to them, do I need to put heals on them also, etc.

[SEngraver]

Originally Posted by Georgette

OK, more questions....as I look in my tool box, I find many different kind of gravers, which is a good thing. I have sharpened the 90 and 120? But find that I have a few flats and some very sharp ones, like a knife from GRS, they have different numbers on them, do these numbers mean anything special, these are already shaped from the factory, now do I have to do anything more to them, do I need to put heals on them also, etc.

Hi Georgette,

The numbers indicate the size of the graver.
You have to put heels on most gravers to use them however some gravers can be used without heels.
If you can post a picture of the gravers or tell us the names you can get better/more advise.

SE