[B]my first ever bulino[/B]

[T Inslay]

Hey guys, as the tittle says, ive just done my first bulino. Im pretty happy with how it came out considering ive only been engraving for 7 weeks. I did the whole lot banknote style with the Carl Bleile point. I think i may have taken Steve Lindsays advice to beginers to 'think small' a little too far.




I would love some tips on things i can do to improve.

What i have noticed is most people on this forum do bulino dots rarther than banknote style. I gave it a go, left the heel off the tool and started making dots with my tool about 45-60 degrees off the work, it just made a mess, burrs everywhere and microscopic fluff and whatnot on the work made it hard to see the denisty of my pattern. and as soon as you rotated the work around they disapeared?

im really lost as to where to start & whats right/wrong with bulino dots.

Cheers, Tom.

[gravalance]

Hi Tom,
sorry I can't tell you much about bulino, haven't tried it myself, but for 7 weeks I think this i quite a great start! I suppose, you also did the lettering, that's really nicely done!
Good luck for the further ones

[SVD]

Tom

I didn't comment because I'm not a bulino artist but I'll toss in what little I've picked up from following their discussions.

The burrs on your dots are a technique thing. Some guys live with the burrs, some plan to do some very fine sanding to remove them, and some adjust their technique to pop the burr out (so there's no burr left on the plate). The popped out burrs are the 'fluff' (I've also heard it called dust) that accumulates as you work, or so I've read - haven't done this myself, as I said.

Fine bulino is very viewing angle dependent. Those lovely pictures you see of some of the exquisite Italian work depend heavily on just the right lighting and viewing angle. Without that you just see a field of grey. One of the great achievements of some of the folks like Phil Coggan is to have a bulino scene that's not (as) dependant on angle - and Phil has noted some of his work as being limited viewing angle stuff.

They say that rubbing a little oil over the work will make it much more visible and I've done that on some of the crude tests I've done. It makes sense - the oil increases the contrast provided by the cuts so they should show better.

Do some searches and reading here, maybe send a few PM's to the folks who know what they're doing and you should be cranking right along. Your artistic abilities are much better than mine (a very easy bar to pass) so it's just a matter of you learning the techniques to go with them.

[Kevin]

Tom, your lettering looks very good. A huge improvement over just a short time ago. Shows you are on the right track for learning.
Can't help you on Bulino, have not tried yet, but it looks good for a first try.
Kevin Scott