ENGRAVING. 
discover in the prosecution of the arts in 
this country, is fortunately not to be attri- 
buted to want of genius, or relaxation from 
study in the artist ; the chill of apathy in 
the rich, who view a wretched coloured aqua- 
tint with the same or more pleasure than 
the most laboured production of the graver, 
is the baleful cause of the languishing state 
of historical engraving. When persons 
capable of affording patronage are taught 
discrimination, future Woollets will fasci- 
nate the best judges of engraving. 
We shall now proceed to explain the me- 
thods of executing different descriptions of 
engraving. The graver, an instrument of 
steel, is the primary object for engraving 
on copper; it is square for cutting of broad 
lines, and lozenge for the finest, and must 
be tempered to that exact state which will 
prevent the point from breaking or wearing 
by its action on the metal ; to obtain this 
state, it is customary to heat it when too 
hard on the end of a red hot poker, till it 
assumes a straw colour, and then cool it in 
oil ; if held too long, it will become blue, 
soft, and useless, till the process of tem- 
pering the steel is renewed. As it is possi- 
ble a graver may be of the proper degree 
of solidity, except in some inconsiderable 
part, it would be well to rub it on the oil 
stone till that is ascertained. The graver is 
inserted in a handle of hard wood, resem- 
bling a pear with a longitudinal slice cut off, 
which is to enable the artist to use it as flat 
on the plate as his fingers and thumb will 
permit. In order to prepare this instru- 
ment for cutting a clear smooth line, great 
care must be taken in sharpening it, that 
the original general form should be pre- 
served, by laying the sides flat upon the oil- 
stone, and rubbing them so as not to round 
them in the least, after which the graver is 
to be held sloping towards the person, and 
rubbed thus till the point is extremely 
sharp ; besides these precautions, it will 
be necessary that the point should not be 
exactly in a right line with, the lower part 
of the graver, but a little higher, that it 
may not press too deep into the copper. 
In rubbing the sides of the graver, the 
usual manner has been to confine the right 
arm close to the side, placing the fore fin- 
ger of the left hand on the upper side of 
• the tool when on the stone. This instru- 
ment is used for finishing the imperfections 
discoverable in etchings, and exclusively in 
engraving writing, 
The scraper is a long triangular piece of 
steel, tapering gradually from the handle to 
tire point; the threg edges produced by this 
form, being sharpened on the oil-stone, are 
used for scraping off the roughness occa- 
sioned by the graver, and erasing errone- 
ous lines. 
The burnisher is a third instrument of 
steel, hard, round, and highly polished, for 
rubbing out punctures or scratches in the 
copper. The oil-stone has been already 
mentioned, to those may be added the nee- 
dle or dry point for etching, and making 
those extremely fine lines which cannot be 
done with the graver. 
Cushions made of soft leather, and filled 
with fine sand, hence called sand-bags, are 
required for the support of the plate in 
engraving, which, from their circular sur- 
face, permits the copper to turn with ease, 
and facilitates the cutting of those true 
curves composing the shading of most sub- 
jects. The oil rubber and charcoal are ne- 
cessary for polishing the plate. 
Every tiling depends upon the free use of 
the graver, therefore the utmost care must 
be taken to hold it properly, by prevent- 
ing the interposition of the fingers between 
the graver and the plate, with the fore fin- 
ger on the upper angle, which enables the 
artist to conduct it parallel with the sub- 
stance engraved, thus preventing the point 
from entering deeply, and impeding the 
progress of the tool. 
To engrave well requires good materials, 
though those are nearly confined to two, 
the graver, and the best copper, the latter 
should be free from flaws, small punctures, 
well hammered to close the pores, and po- 
lished to such a degree as to be free from 
the slightest scratches. 
To trace the design intended for engrav- 
ing accurately on the plate, it is usual to 
heat the latter sufficiently to melt white 
wax, with which it must be covered equally 
and thin, and suffered to cool ; the drawing 
is then copied in outlines with a black-lead 
pencil on paper, which is laid with the pen- 
cilled side upon the wax, and the back rub- 
bed gently with the burnisher, which will 
transfer the lead to the wax. The design 
must next be traced with an etching nee- 
dle through the wax on the copper, when, 
on wiping it clean, it will exhibit all the 
outlines ready for the graver. 
The table intended for engraving on 
should be perfectly steady, and the sand- 
bags placed equally firm ; in cutting of 
curved or undulating lines, the graver must 
be held still, or moved, to suit the turning 
of the plate with the left hand, but when 
straight lines are intended, the plate is to 
be held stationary, and the graver urged 
