Engraving equipment

[Christophe Mineau]

Thanks for the advices!
Question for you: brass could be a good material for an hammer (with burin) or should I use steel or something able to take tempering? I suppose the use of hammer is related to light and fast, instead of slow and powerful strokes.

Yes , right, that's not a hammer for blacksmithing, and personally, as my tools are for myself, I don't bother with hardenning, if they got worn (and so far they don't), I'd simply rebuild them, that's not a big deal.
One of my Craftsman and Artist Guru Youtuber is Uri Tuchman, look at this video for instance :

He also uses a lightweight aluminum head hammer.

Talking about pneumatic engraver, do you know a good way to build one that runs with normal air comrpessor? I tried a funny prototype with 10mm piston and a too heavy spring but it didn't work at all

Yes, there is a way, but the commercial version is much much more expensive, and the hobbyist version is also more difficult to build, compared to the push/pull version.
There is a Russian guy who explains how he built his, and over all shows clearly on the screen his detailed drawings.
See this video :

I don't understand much Russian and the google subtitles are sometimes strange, but as far as I understand, the building challenge is much higher.

suprizingly, with little outlay, one can make most of what is needed with goodies layin around your shop. if you're a machinist that's a plus

Yes , it's really true ! and for rendoman, no need to go the pneumatic way before you already appreciate your work with the hammer and burin. There are really some basics to learn, the first being sharpening, then the tilt angles, and so on, without talking of the design layout.
And with the hammer and chisel, the enormous advantage is that you are doing everything in a slowww motion, and you don't risk to mess your work at every second, and you have much time to think about what works and what doesn't work.

I would say, however, about tooling, that the tool that is really useful is the bowl vise. You can try to build one, like I did (and I'm very happy with it), or simply by a cheap one from Alibaba, as I saw you already found your way to it.
Personally, I don't find the blades too difficult to make, I never purchased the blades, you can make them from HSS rods, 2mm or 3mm, round or square. And I use also some HSS jigsaw blades reground.

once i learn how to upload fotos, i have a lot to share with a newbie. to efficiently help you , i'd need a bit of info on you. are you a machinist, woodworker, artist, etc, etc. i'm not up to speed yet here on the rules of engagement. once i am, i have some fotos that would give you ideas to work on.

Yes, we would be very happy to see your work and hear your advices !
I think there is a fine tutorial for the photos by Jon :
yes, found it, it's a video from Ken (missing you Ken)
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/h...d-photos-18931