Engraving on my saber. (Still WIP)

[Ripper]

This is an up grade build I made. I changed the emitter and LED. But I also tried my hand at engraving. It’s not finished yet, I still need to do a lot of clean up and make it much smoother.
I still don’t have the best pics, I did them outside so I hope you can see how fare I still need to go, but give me input on how it looks so fare. Thanks for looking!

The emitter.
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m610/rippergary/Bladeholdercloseup.jpg

A little of the side.
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m610/rippergary/Carvcloseup.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m610/rippergary/buttoncloseup.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m610/rippergary/fullsabernotlit.jpg
http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m610/rippergary/Litsaber.jpg

http://youtu.be/dLetC-DY2d8
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dLetC-DY2d8?hl=en&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[supersith]

looks good even with the as you put it bad pics...you are heading in the right direction. keep it up.

[Crystal Chambers]

Not bad. Hard to tell from the pics but looks like you're off to a good start at least. I'd use some aluminum black or something to darken the engraving.

[Natesroom]

Hey Ripper one thing ive found is getting a stencil made from a vinyl shop and then taking an acid etch or even a sandblast to it (make sure to get a sandblast resist mask) The lines arent as freehand and organic (more curvy and precise) as what you've drawn but maybe a thought for the future..

[Ripper]

aluminum black sounds good.

I have to look deeper into that. That might work for more then just a saber.

[eastern57]

Hey Ripper, I've done a couple hilts where I freehand engraved (my AoF Bane and Nejaa). I've used a dremel (w/etching attachment) and a dremel engraver. And for my purposes, they've worked great.

Your lines aren't that far off from what mine looked like. But there's really no method to the madness, so to speak. The final "look" depends on what you want it to look like. Which is a nice way of saying, "scratching up your hilt doesn't mean much if you don't have a reason why it's all scratched up." :D I've done "good" and "not-so-good" work... but it fit the theme of the saber. I recommend having a plan or an idea... without one, we're just guys scratching up perfectly good hilts.

[Ripper]

Hey Ripper, I've done a couple hilts where I freehand engraved (my AoF Bane and Nejaa). I've used a dremel (w/etching attachment) and a dremel engraver. And for my purposes, they've worked great.

Your lines aren't that far off from what mine looked like. But there's really no method to the madness, so to speak. The final "look" depends on what you want it to look like. Which is a nice way of saying, "scratching up your hilt doesn't mean much if you don't have a reason why it's all scratched up." :D I've done "good" and "not-so-good" work... but it fit the theme of the saber. I recommend having a plan or an idea... without one, we're just guys scratching up perfectly good hilts.

I agree. This wasn’t so much a plan as it was an idea. The design works for me, I just need to clean it up in my opinion. But posting this up has been a tremendous help. I think I will get to work on using some of the tips and ideas people have given me. When this is complete I will post the finished saber. Because if I leave it as it is, it WILL be just another good saber scratched up.

[ghost_a*]

Hey Ripper, I've done a couple hilts where I freehand engraved (my AoF Bane and Nejaa). I've used a dremel (w/etching attachment) and a dremel engraver. And for my purposes, they've worked great.

Your lines aren't that far off from what mine looked like. But there's really no method to the madness, so to speak. The final "look" depends on what you want it to look like. Which is a nice way of saying, "scratching up your hilt doesn't mean much if you don't have a reason why it's all scratched up." :D I've done "good" and "not-so-good" work... but it fit the theme of the saber. I recommend having a plan or an idea... without one, we're just guys scratching up perfectly good hilts.

how detailed have you been able to be with the 'dremel engraver' tip?
i have the engraver and i also got the 1.6 cone because it was so sharply tipped.
i did mediocre at best for my first attempt. i used a scrap piece though. haven't gotten the nerve to take to the real thing. i printed my design on a piece of paper and taped the paper to the metal and went to town.
the problem there is that once you start cutting into the paper stencil it obviously gets torn up and stuff.

[eastern57]

Fairly detailed. Not professional-caliber, mind-blowing stuff... but nice enough for a DIY saber. What I do to counter the paper mess, is after I secure the paper, I'll trace over it with an x-acto knife to put the lines on the metal, then all I'm doing is making the lines wider and more defined. I've done it a couple times and it seems to work pretty well.

This is a tree growing out of a planet... :D

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Nejaa/th_DSC07104.jpg (http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Nejaa/DSC07104.jpg)

[Ripper]

Fairly detailed. Not professional-caliber, mind-blowing stuff... but nice enough for a DIY saber. What I do to counter the paper mess, is after I secure the paper, I'll trace over it with an x-acto knife to put the lines on the metal, then all I'm doing is making the lines wider and more defined. I've done it a couple times and it seems to work pretty well.

This is a tree growing out of a planet... :D


http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Nejaa/th_DSC07104.jpg (http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/eastern57/Nejaa/DSC07104.jpg)
Now that's what I'm trying to do. Right now I gave up on the hilt and working on the emmiter. I put a wrap arounf the hilt and a leather sring wrap on top. I call it the Wild West saber! I'll post soon. Not that the hilt was bad. I was doing way too much and this will take years to get it right. But the emitter I can handle. But the wrap was a lot of work too!!

[Crystal Chambers]

I tried some engraving on both chrome and brass sinktube and found it too hard for my tips to dig in. I'm guessing the aluminum is easy to get deeper into where it's softer. I ended up using a cut off wheel which worked well for what I was doing....have to wait till the sabers done to share. It's gonna be epic.