Scott Pilkington is engraving the Statue of Liberty onto the back gripframe of a Walther TPH in stainless steel. The TPH is a smaller framed version of the famous PPK as carried by James Bond and notables in non-fiction events.

Here you can see the beginnings of the outline, stippled in this. I have started to used high speed dental turbine to remove some of the background. Note that the bottom portion is already engraved by me with brickwork, representing the pedestal on Ellis island

Another view at this beginning point. Note that the columns in the brick pedestal are also being hollowed out with the dental turbine.

I have removed some more of the background, and notice that the background between the columns has now been cleaned up from the ragged burr cuts and stippled.

I am starting to remove the background around the torch. I can only do a very little at a time here as the heat from the flames is very intense. :^)
Also note I am starting to carve out the backside of Liberty’s shoe.

Here I have made some initial cuts for the folds of her robes. The rays for her crown are appearing, the upper border is in place, and the background in it is being removed.

I have gold inlayed the flame area in the torch.

Now I am starting to work on the bun in her hair, and have added details to the torch body.
While I spent the first 10 years of my engraving career with hammer and chisel, now days my favorite way to engrave is with the Lindsay Palm Control.

Most of the background is away and stippled. I am starting to sculpture out her hair more and the hand holding the tablet. Note the lack of footwear by the engraver.

Sculpting away metal on the robes.

More sculpting on the robes.

At this point I am sculpting with gravers and cleaning, and smoothing the cuts with tiny stones like these sold by Tira Mitchell.

Now I am creating a mask with scotch tape as prepare to use glass bead dust to blast the statue to give it that even weathered look.
NOTE: I will not be blasting this in the vise. The blasting process will be done in a self contained cabinet.

Here you can see the look with the blasting performed but the tape is still in place. I use the Badger Air Blaster for my work.

To see more of Scott’s work, click here.