A new yataghan

fspic · 29th January 2012, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALEX

Acid etching was used on some items like armour, metal trays, etc, but not that common on arms. It was/is considered less prestigeous and desirable. As you properly stated - it is less expensivel, and would not be considered a mark of high quality. Nowadays, it is used as quick, sweat-shop mass production method as it allows multiple items to be produced at the same time.

Casting aside the issue of weapons and looking at the issue of illustration, acid etching is what produced some of the world's great illustrative artwork such as that by Durer. If Durer's fifteenth century plates existed in good condition today they could be used to produce much the same fine work - on some sort of paper of course.

Depending on the masking technique, acid etching could outline a project to be engraved further or prepared for koftgari - though I never heard of anyone doing it. It would be useful today to neatly outline the metal to be chiseled away, for example, from the top of a Persian barrel I have where there are raised sections with koftgari overlaid with silver. No one ever did it that way, I bet, but it could be done today. I speak as someone with recollections of limited printing and hand lithography experience. It is possible to cross-apply the techniques to hopefully simplify the job at hand.

I suppose depletion gilding could be used over an etched surface or even gold foil. I have some Indian tulwar hilts which have broad sections of silver leaf hammered on the usual scratched surface. I had an Algerian jambiya with a light gold inlay of pears on the blade. The surface wasn't scratched but simply hit with a file.

In all these things cost and time are the factors.

delor · 29th January 2012, 09:00 AM

Contemporary engraver Antonio Montejano does an outstanding work based on traditional etching technics.
A video of the engraving of Picasso's Guernica onto a spanish folfing knife : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJhmg8zH_b0

And some more "classic" work :

fspic · 29th January 2012, 03:03 PM

I suppose someone could go one step further and coat a blade with a photo sensitive solution and expose a negative through an enlarger. Then it could be acid etched and/or hand engraved. And you could be the first kid on your block to coat a blade and then expose it through a special camera like a tin type thus permitting "on the scene" image recording. That would be the next step in social and professional status seeking among engravers.

Someone desiring to compete with that could then go back to the middle ages and try to produce a camera obscura image landscape through a pin hole onto his sensitized blade. The image would then be hand chiseled. This should be the ultimate status in image reproduction and impression - until someone discovers some other way to achieve the task in a more primitive way and thus trumpet a victory.

29th January 2012, 09:00 AM	#2
delor Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Marseille - France Posts: 73	Contemporary engraver Antonio Montejano does an outstanding work based on traditional etching technics. A video of the engraving of Picasso's Guernica onto a spanish folfing knife : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJhmg8zH_b0 And some more "classic" work :

29th January 2012, 03:03 PM	#3
fspic Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 27	I suppose someone could go one step further and coat a blade with a photo sensitive solution and expose a negative through an enlarger. Then it could be acid etched and/or hand engraved. And you could be the first kid on your block to coat a blade and then expose it through a special camera like a tin type thus permitting "on the scene" image recording. That would be the next step in social and professional status seeking among engravers. Someone desiring to compete with that could then go back to the middle ages and try to produce a camera obscura image landscape through a pin hole onto his sensitized blade. The image would then be hand chiseled. This should be the ultimate status in image reproduction and impression - until someone discovers some other way to achieve the task in a more primitive way and thus trumpet a victory.