Engraving with Sam Alfano

deep relief carving

 Had a fantastic time with master engraver Sam Alfano in Louisiana last week. He is one of the best in the world, and it was a real privilege to spend a week refining my skills with him. I was kind of looking forward to a week without distractions doing what I love best, but actually it was tougher than I expected. It felt like training for a sport, and there was a surprising amount of adrenaline involved (yes, we're an odd lot).
The engraved lines are often about the width of a hair, and very unforgiving of mistakes. The projects got successively harder, so I felt the long hours of concentration. The work was projected on a large screen, so Sam could see EXACTLY what I was doing the whole time.

great engravers trick for removing lemel ( metal dust ); velcro cable tie around little finger

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