Knives and engraving » Viljo Marrandi

Engraved iPhone

Viljo Marrandi — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:35:27 +0000

Engraving my iPhone is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time now, the plain metal border was so tempting. I’ve searched the net, but haven’t yet found any hand engraved iPhones. There are a lot of laser engraved ones and cases, but to me laser engraving is not really a true engraving. So someone must start with the handmade.

For starters I engraved the bottom part of it, so when I did screw up, it wouldn’t be too noticeable. The metal seems to be some kind of stainless steel and a very tough one too. I broke many-many graver tips during the process and at least 1/4th of the time was spent on re-sharpening the gravers.

Scroll design is very basic and I drew it straight on the phone using china white and pencil. The width of the metal border is 3mm.

This section took 8 hours to complete. I’m not yet sure if I’m going to engrave the top and/or sides too. Maybe sculpting and/or some gold inlay?

Engraved iPhone

Finally I have something to show when trying to explain what kind of engraving I actually do.

Sculpted knife

Viljo Marrandi — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:52:32 +0000

Quite a while ago I started one knife engraving project in sculpting. As it happened, it took longer than expected and now I finished the first side of the knife. This project is mainly a learning experiment, both the technique and style are rather experimental. This one side took 51 hours to complete.

Total length of the knife is 16cm, handle is 8.8cm.

Engraved knife full length

Engraved folder

Engraving close-up

Engraved Spyderco with English scroll

Viljo Marrandi — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:29:29 +0000

English scroll is a very old and traditional style, that has appealed to be for quite a while. Until now I haven’d had a chance to learn how it’s done, but that all changed at Engrave-In, where Simon Lytton was kind enough to instruct me a little. The style is structurally quite simple and fast to cut, there is no background to remove.

This tiny Spyderco Honeybee was a gift for a friend and here I tried to apply all that I remembered from that theoretical instruction. Time taken for both sides was 7 hr 15 min.

Hand engraved Spyderco Honeybee

Engraved Spyderco

Engraved Spyderco knife

Amplifier knobs

Viljo Marrandi — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:15:08 +0000

One of my (too many) hobbies is also fiddling with electronics and audio stuff. I built a gamma2 DAC kit from AMB a while ago and soon I’m going to build tube headphone amp too. In the mean time I got an idea to make amplifier knobs, because there didn’t seem to be very many options to choose from. Mostly factory made aluminium knobs. What if I wanted titanium, stainless or bronze knobs? Didn’t find them anywhere.

So I made some myself.

Amplifier knobs

Here is short video of how the engraving of that map knob was like. Source for engraving was some old simplified version of Earth’s map.

Dodge Zippo engraving

Viljo Marrandi — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:59:40 +0000

One rather quick and simple Zippo engraving. This is 1979 Dodge pick-up truck.

Dodge on Zippo

This is the first time I tried to engrave chrome plated Zippo and is actually worked out rather well. But the engraving has to be inked, otherwise the cuts are yellow-ish and showing the base material (brass).

Engraved damasteel knife

Viljo Marrandi — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:11:27 +0000

This knife has been in the making for quite some time now. Actually, it’s been waiting queue for engraving most of that time. The knife itself was finished about a month ago, but different and more urgent projects had to be completed before I could engrave it.

The blade is made of damasteel, which is kind of stainless damascus made in Sweden. This knife was the first one where I’ve used that steel and I really-really like how it came out. The pattern on the steel is very fine and extremely beautiful. Now I want to make all knives from that steel, just need to find customers who can afford it . Any takers?

Engraving itself took 10 hours, design was about 3-4h.

Engraved damasteel knife

Engraving close-up

Silver Zippo engraving

Viljo Marrandi — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:46:19 +0000

What are the best days for engraver? When a customer comes in and says “Do me something nice on that silver Zippo. I like your scrollwork and just do your thing. I’m sure it’ll be good looking lighter”.

So I get to drawing board, I can try out some new styles, play with ideas for a while and then “do my thing” on a lighter. Sure it can take way more time than allowed by the budget, but it’s fun and I’m always learning new things for the future.

One engraving style that has fascinated me since I first saw it, is called “Liberty”. It has quite unique look to it and can be concluded with one work - spaghetti’s. But very beautiful and graceful ones.

Without further ado, here my next Zippo project on a silver body.

Hand engraved Zippo

More of that Zippo engraving jazz

Viljo Marrandi — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:43:16 +0000

My bulino practice plate has had some progress, so now it is about 50% completed. Unfortunately at this time I don’t have time to work on it for quite some time. Few engraving, knife and sword projects need my attention. But, here’s what I have up to now.

Bulino Angel

I definitely learned a lot from this practice and next one will be hopefully better. It is was quite a surprise for me how small the dots have to be to create nice smooth effect. Basically just mere teeny-tiny scratches on the surface and even then it’s rather easy to overdo it. That engraving is 5cm high, nose is 1mm high and 0.5mm wide. Just to give you a sense of scale…

In the mean time I engraved one more Zippo for a customer. Design was given to me, so my job was just to engrave it.

Engraved Zippo

Quite nice design, isn’t it?

I’m also preparing for next Zippo engraving project. Design for that engraving is about 90% completed, just need to touch it up a little and it’s ready to do. As you can see I’m trying out yet another style. It’s called Liberty (some engravers call it spaghetti scroll, because of all those long, skinny and intervening… spaghettis). So, if you’re interested in getting a Zippo with that kind of engraving, now is the time to let me know.

Video: Sharpening a graver with Lindsay template

Viljo Marrandi — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:56:39 +0000

Overview of how to prepare and sharpen a graver with Lindsay template. This time I used “Phil Coggan bulino point” template. Later in the video you can also see little ‘in the action’ bulino engraving.

More bulino practice

Viljo Marrandi — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:11:02 +0000

Little while ago I did one small portrait for practice, now I’m halfway through with the whole image. The progress is quite slow on this, because I’m still learning the technique. So far it looks quite alright, but the hardest parts are not yet done – face and bulk of the body. Wings will not be too difficult, because nobody really knows how they should look like, it’s all fantasy there . Face is different story, even if you don’t know anything about art or composition, you can spot immediately when face doesn’t look right. Currently only the main outlines of face are done, eyes and nose are in right places, but mouth is little bit off. Need to fix that.

Bulino Angel (Artwork by Armando Huerta)

When this practice works out, then I will engrave that same image on silver Zippo and can send it out to a customer.

I’m really happy about customers who push me beyond my comfort zone, and are willing pay for these experiments. This is that kind of project – I’ve never done any bulino work before and starting with a human is quite a challenge.