Speaking of engraving, I recently sent a putter to an engraver that I know for her to do some large scroll engraving on it, in all liklehood I ill probably keep the putter as my gamer (though I really have enough of these already!), or have it to demonstrate what engraving patterns are possible. She isnt the usual engraver that I use as she specialises in a different style of engraving but is an extremely talented artist and engraver.
We are considering have her engrave a putter with some kind of golf based picture (any suggestions are always welcome) but in any case, I thought I would share the first process in terms of hand engraving, in this case it was roughly sketching the placement to send me a picture to check if I was happy with it. The process after this is to carefully mark out the design, this is done by dabbing the metal with something along the lines of plastercine, something that will leave a slight residue on the metal. From her you careful mark on the outline with a scribe, which provides the guide of where to make the cuts. Once all this is done (it is surprisingly time consuming and i've found by experience, you need to make sure the layout it absolutely perfect before you start making any cuts.) you can then start the engraving part. You cut the main outlines and parts, in this case the scrolls, and then you layer it up with shading to give it more depth.
The picture below shows Katia's rough sketch on the bottom of the putter in engineering ink to show where the scrolls will form. She has said she will also send over a picture of the top of the putter today which I can post later.
Engraving isnt for all and we aim to fundamentally produce gamers for people but I think it is always good to champion old world skill.
(The wooden handled tool in the picture is the graver which is whats help in the palm of your hand to 'push' the metal part of the graver along the cut lines with is what engraves the metal.)
