doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com High Relief Engaving Question

Hi all, just curious about how high relief engraving is shaded. Low areas are darkened and the high relief areas are polished. As an example these two Merkels:

Shaded:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/conten...oryId=SEARCH_gl

Polished:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/conten...oryId=SEARCH_gl

Another question, how can one do this themselves? If you can "shade" would you be able to do it with scroll engraving?

Thanks so much!

Greg

To my eye, the first gun is very well engraved by a more than competent engraver.
The second one is laughable.
The only way to improve it is to file it down and start over.
Reminds me of some of the work done in Turkey 8/20 years ago.

Best,
John

One way to do it is to punch the background with a fine tool. This works and lasts and takes a deal of time to execute. Another way is to use ink. This is fast and cheap and doesn't last, but sure does photograph well

The second gun is like those paint by number paintings you see at yards sales. Best view at a distance or under poor light. Very childish in nature and quality.

There was a 28 ga. NID floating around a few years ago with that same poorly done type of engraving. I would have bought the gun to remove the engraving and start over but the 5 Grand asking price just a little high. Heck, I felt they should have paid me good money to take the gun and try to straighten out the mess some one made of it.

I'm not sure the first gun is engraved as in cut with a stylus. It appears to me to be a cast in design which may have been highlighted with a little hand work afterward. At that price you aren't going to get full coverage real engraving.

I agree they both look like crap.