Ken uses one of Lindsay's AirGravers for at least some of his work. I certainly don't consider that a fault of any sort.
Most engravers now use some sort of air assisted tool.
They are time savers if nothing else and if you're making a living at it,,,,.
Some start right out using one and I see that as a crutch of sorts. Never being capable of working with traditional tools of the trade leaves out an important part of the experience IMHO.
The air assisted tools are faster, cleaner cutting, can do some finer cutting that is very hard to master by traditional manner.
I started when there were no air assisted tools, so you either learned with hammer, chisel and graver or you failed. I tried a GraverMeister early on at a demo and didn't like it. That was probably 30 or 35 years ago.
But after 40+ years at it, a couple of bad accidents and a nerve disorder made it impossible to hold the chisel steady anymore.
I was done as far as the docs were concerned.
One last try was an air assisted tool and I've been able to get back to engraving again. Animals I still do with a chisel punch however as I can't quite hold the new tool in the correct position for the effect I need.
No where near the output I once did but at least I can still work.
Computers have come into the engravers workshop also. They are used in capturing pictures and images, redrawing them with the various 'photo-shop' type programs, re-sizing, flipping them, etc. There are several ways to print an image from paper to steel.
Not every engraver is a natural wildlife artist,,,not every wildlife artist is a natural engraver.
Lifting, preserving and reusing patterns has been done by engravers since the beginning. Even the 'masters' reused their favorite animal and wildlife layouts over and over again. A portfolio of pictures and pulls was never far from reach. Stacks of magazines and pictures clutter the shelves and floor of the engravers work area. Now the tech savy engravers put it all on their computers.
Gold inlay undercutting in done traditionally with punches to form the dovetail,,sometimes a knife edge graver is used.
Now ultra high speed dental tools w/ micro tiny burrs are being used to under cut lines so small that they are measured in a couple of .000" wide. Working under a microscope, wiskers on a tigers face can be inlayed with the system in a way hardly possible in years past.
The trade has evolved with technology.
Maybe some of it today isn't even 'engraving' anymore by the traditional definition. That should be kept in mind when judging older work against modern.
