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قراءة كتاب Wood Engraving
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class="tei tei-pb" id="page34">[pg 34] nearly so effective, or, failing both, the paper can be folded to the back of the block in such manner that movement of the tracing is impossible. Being assured that there will be no movement of the paper, trace again on to the wood by means of a hard pencil, or preferably, a steel point. If either of these is too sharp or pressed on too heavily, it will scratch or bruise the wood. By detaching the paper from one side the work can be examined without fear of movement, care being taken to fix again before continuing to trace. Only a very faint line must be expected and this is all that is required.
Another method is to scrape some red chalk finely on to a separate piece of paper (not too large, as it can be used over and over again) and rub it well on until the paper is evenly reddened. Place the reddened surface next the wood underneath the tracing—it need not be fixed—and proceed to trace as before. This method will produce a faint red line and will be useful when, as sometimes happens, the subject is to be reversed in the final print.
These faint outlines must be made stronger, the drawing completed, by means of camel hair brush and Indian ink or by pencil. Any shading can be put into the drawing by means of these, always remembering that it is [pg 35] to be finally expressed in terms of the engraving tool. To draw on the wood is awkward without some support; a piece of wood as high as the block will be necessary on which to rest the hand.
[pg 36]
ENGRAVING
The tool has to be held in such a way that none of the fingers nor the thumb is underneath it. The handle rests in the lower part of the hand, the fourth finger in the groove of the inner part of the handle and the third finger by its side; these two fingers touch the handle and keep it in position within the hand. Following the third and fourth, the two forefingers rest on the outer side of the blade while the thumb, extending beyond the fingers almost to the point, is on the inside. The thumb is the only part of the right hand that touches the block. The fingers touch [pg 37] each other in natural order: there need be no space between any. The tool should be laid flat upon the table, and may be taken up in one movement (Fig. 14). Seen from below it should then show as Fig. 15. Held in this way the tool will pass flat over the wood without any obstruction from any part of the fingers or hand.
The block is held on the sandbag by the left hand, generally towards the corners, which allows the greatest freedom for turning. When cutting straight lines the block is held stationary, the tool-hand cutting forward; when cutting curves the block is turned round, the tool-hand remaining in one position. There is no hard rule in this, the hands acting flexibly for each other, but it can be seen at once when engraving that a circle cannot be cut unless the block is turned round in precise ratio to the cuts of the tool, while to [pg 38] cut a straight line the wood cannot advance to the tool's point.
Engrave the lines one under the other, not one above the other; for circles it is much more easy to start the cut at the top than to start underneath, though to be able to start underneath is sometimes useful. The flat part of the handle should be just above the surface of the wood in cutting lines or tints, but this does not apply to all work; the angle at which tools are held must be determined by the shapes to be taken out. Do not attempt to cut a long line with one cut, but with a succession of short ones, and do not cut too deeply, or the line or wood on which the belly of the tool presses will be bruised and will print broken instead of clean and definite. If the tool be sharp the wood will chip out crisply at each cut; the lines should be cut out, not pushed or pressed out. Blunt tools are more responsible for slips than anything else except perhaps a disturbed mind.
Should there be any danger of rubbing the drawing during engraving, cover the block with a piece of thin paper after the manner of a tracing, first making a small hole where work is to commence.
The craftsman is advised to practise by engraving something definite, something that [pg 39] can be used. Aimless cutting and digging about on bits of wood leads nowhere, for it is a very simple matter to cut a line that need not be cut in any particular place, whereas to cut the lines exactly to the subject, to produce something that is required is not only getting experience, but the result is known at once in success or failure.
Roughly speaking there are four different kinds of engraving, of which any variations and combinations can be made. The first and most natural is to cut white lines on black, and in many cases the subject will be sufficiently expressed without further work; Fig. 16 is cut in this way. Fig. 17 shows the background tinted or shaded, that is, lines cut one under the other. Fig. 18 is the black letter cleared (scauped) away leaving it white, while Fig. 19 shows all wood cleared away except outlines. Bold simple lettering is an excellent subject [pg 40] to begin with. See that the corners are joined cleanly: little jagged bits left in look slovenly and print in a dirty manner.
The larger tint-tools and scaupers are used for scauping or clearing, that is, for clearing a wide line round the work and cutting away all wood not wanted. While doing this it is essential to protect the surrounding work from the belly of the tool by a thin piece of card (Fig. 20). It must be thin yet of sufficient substance to withstand the pressure of the tool, for the work is done by