Engraving guits

[Bo Grohl]

Thinking about trying engraving out. I have a dremel and loads of bits, not sure which ones to use. Anyone got skills in this?
Cheers, TT 

[pete1951]

Most ( all?) old National guitars would have been engraved using sharp edged tools rather than a rotary machine. There are loads of YouTube videos on using both methods.
I have tried ( with edged engraving tools) on some scrap metal but one slip and the piece is ruined, so never persisted. A rotary tool looks much easier to control, but the effect will not be the same as an old National.
Pete

[Michael Messer]

It does work with a rotary tool, but doesn't compare to the work done by the various engravers that worked for National in the 30s. The only engraver whose name we know, is a Mr Williams. Nothing else is known about him or any of the others. What we do know is that they were masters of their craft. I have seen many engraved Nationals and owned a couple of Style 4 models, and the workmanship is extraordinary. The time it would have taken and the concentration to get the perfection they achieved is amazing. Ask Marshcat, he's got a house full of them.

Shine On
Michael.

[leeophonic]

At one of the guitar shows (Kempton I think) there was an engraver there who was doing some guitar related work, they were london based and also had a crossover with shotguns. I seem to remember Dave King was there that year also, it maybe that they were engraving tuners or some other part.

I have done some engraving on metal with a Dremel when having to mark tools and other items for inventory, nothing artistic but a great aid was masking tape applied 1st and drawn on to stop slippage, other than that good luck.

Lee

[snakehips]

Hi there !

I've got no experience engraving but did own two lovely squareneck vintage National Tricones for a while :

1927 De-Lux (Acanthus engraving) Tricone (now owned by Mr Washboard Resonators, himself !).

1937 Style 3 Tricone (now owned by Jim Murray).


The Style 3 was lovely but the De-Lux from 1927 was spectacular, as it had a real 3D quality to it.
My house has a large landing, up the top of our stairs, with a large window mid-way up the staircase that sunlight came flooding in.
I used to have the two squarenecks on guitar stands by the top of the stairs.
As I'd go down the stairs, I'd look at the guitar and the sunlight coming in from the window bounced of different parts of the De-Lux Tricone's engraving, in a much more 3D way, than the 1937 Style 3.

I think what I am saying is the 1927 Tricone's engraving was much more complex. Engraved cuts into the metal were done at different angles, in the same area of engraving - so that only some of the cuts reflected light at any one angle. Move yourself or the guitar around a bit, and other parts of the engraving reflected the light instead. Very fancy !
So, it might be the shape of the tool, and/or the angle the tool is cutting into the metal that dictates the shape of the engraved cut.
Turn the tool around 180 degrees, and cut at the same angle as before, you might get a different shape that reflects light in a different way etc etc.

If you do seriously want to try engraving, I'd highly recommend some sort of magnification to help you see what you are doing better.
I use loupes with 4.6x magnification in my job (as a Dentist) - and couldn't cope if I had to work without them now, ha ha !!
You can get cheap magnifiers - even 2x magnification would help a bit.

[marshcat]

Perfection indeed. The size of the cover plate screw highlights the almost microscopic cuts!

[marshcat]

One modern engraver who in my opinion equals the 1920s craftsmanship and whom I really admire is David Giulietti; he did the work on a number of NRP custom instruments, including my 2005 style 0.

[marshcat]

And the palm rest:

[chromatic]

Jan 3, 2024 22:39:06 GMT leeophonic said:

At one of the guitar shows (Kempton I think) there was an engraver there who was doing some guitar related work, they were london based and also had a crossover with shotguns. I seem to remember Dave King was there that year also, it maybe that they were engraving tuners or some other part.

I have done some engraving on metal with a Dremel when having to mark tools and other items for inventory, nothing artistic but a great aid was masking tape applied 1st and drawn on to stop slippage, other than that good luck.

Lee

One of my late friends had a gunsmith engrave a metal plate for the front of an LP(ish) shaped guitar. Absolutely top job although it cost £1000 and that was over 15 years ago

Cheers