Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/663

ENGRAVING 651 away the surface around the lines, leaving them in relief. There is a method of wood en- graving in which the lines are cut in the block as in plate engraving. It differs from the latter in that the ground receives the ink instead of the lines, which thus appear white on the paper. ~ FIG. 1. Tools for Wood Engraving. 1. Elliptic. 2. Gouge. 8. Chisel. 4. Tint. 5. Lozenge. 6. Graver. 7. Tool for Pine. 8. Tool in Handle. Modern engravers use a greater variety of tools than were known in the early stages of the art. The old engravers had only small knives and gouges ; now the artist has gravers of different widths to cut out the spaces between fine lines, and broader chisels and gouges to remove wide spaces. Fig. 1 shows the different tools used. Parallel lines, used largely in wood engraving where a flat even appearance is desired, are made by the ruling machine, which produces effects in relief printing similar to those of the ruling machine in plate engraving. (See fig. 2.) II. PLATE ENGKAVING. Engraving on metal plates may be classed under the following heads: etching, line, stipple or chalk, mezzo- 3. 2. Ruling Machine. A. Foundation. B. Bed Plate. C. Revolving Plate. D. Feed Wheel and Screw. E. Tool. F. Carriage. G. Wave Roll. tint, and aquatint. The instruments used are the same, with some modifications, in all the styles. The etching needle or point is a piece of stout steel wire inserted in a handle and ground to a fine point on a hone. Two or three needles, of different thicknesses, are used, some for broad and some for fine lines. The dry point is a similar instrument, but with a more delicate point, used for making outlines to be filled up afterward by the burin or graver. The latter, the principal tool of the engraver, is a small instrument of tempered FIG. 3. Steel Engraver's Tools. 1. Scraper. 2. Section of Scraper. 8. Burnisher. 4. Burin. steel, with one end ground off obliquely so as to produce a sharp cutting point, and the other inserted in a handle. Several are required, the ends of which differ in form from a lozenge to a square, the former for cutting fine, the latter broad lines. The angle at the meeting of the two lower sides is called the belly, and the breadth of the end the face. The scraper is an instru- ment used for taking off the burr raised on the metal by the cutting tools. The burnisher is employed to softenJines bitten in or engraved too deep, or to polish the plate when scratched. Etching may be classed under two heads, painters' etching and engravers' etching. The former is a method of engraving which was practised by many of the old painters, and which has recently come into fashion again among ar- tists. The process is nearly the same in both cases. In painters' etching a copper plate is used, which is covered with a film composed of asphaltum and wax, technically called the etch- ing ground. This ground is blackened with lampblack mixed with the varnish. The en- graver then makes his drawing with etching needles, cutting through the ground to the plate, making his lines fine or broad according to the depth required, working as he would with a pen or pencil. A border or bank of wax is then raised around the plate, and di- luted nitric acid is poured over it. The etch- ing ground resists the action of the acid, which corrodes only the parts uncovered by the needles. When the work is well bitten in, which will be in about a quarter of an hour, the acid is poured off and the plate cleaned, when a proof is taken. If the lines of the lighter parts appear to be sufficiently etched, they are painted over with some of the as- phaltum ground dissolved in spirits of turpen- tine or with sealing wax dissolved in alcohol, and the acid is reapplied to the other parts. This covering of a portion of the plate is called stopping out, and the process of stopping out and biting in is continued until the required depths of line are all attained. Three bitings in are generally enough for a painter's etch- ing. Lines too strongly bitten are rubbed up with the burnisher. Various modifications of this process have been used. Other pro-