Here we see a top down view of the work piece. The end cap of the Mag Lite is securely held with vise jaws made of shoe leather.
The snake like object coming in from the left is a fiber optic wand that I prefer to create shadow free lighting at the graver tip.
Here we start on the largest portion of the monogram which is also the part that is centered. In this case, the last name starts with an H, and therefore is the central character in a three letter monogram. I have tried carefully balance the two separate upright legs of the letter H. By keeping this careful balance, I have basically crated two equal spaces to the right and left to create the first name and middle name initials in.
Having made myself happy that upright portions are balanced I next draw in the rest of of letter H. These additions are subject to being moved slightly up, down or side to side as parts of the two side letters intertwine in.
But, most importantly, I still have equally balanced blank areas to draw the next two initials into.
Here you can see me filling in the two blank side areas with the letters J and T. These are basically sketches at this point, as I try to balance and weave in the portions of the various letters.
Here you can see I start to widen out the script uprights of the various letters to make the cut portions and the negative space balance out.
Here is the finished monogram. I used a technique called “closelining” that works well when cutting through anodized aluminum. Closelining is basically just a series of parallel lines the diverge and converge to create the script look. If I was working in a different metal, say silver or gold, I would have used a traditional script graver that creates a beauty cut by going deeper into the metal on one side as the stem of the letter widens, but this technique does not fare well with colored anodized finish. Another place you commonly see the closelining technique is on very hard metals, like the stainless steel back on watches, where cutting deep into the hard metal can cause problems.
My signature on this piece, as is al of my small pieces is my initials SP intertwined.
To see more Maglite engraving please click here.
To see more of my engraving on other objects, please click here.
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