Scratch The Surface, New Life Through Engraving

Old Indian head nickels are ready for engraving

Scratch the surface, serve a purpose" Sick Of It All is ringing true right now as we prep up some of our pirate coin snaps for our belt loops.

Rusty Knuckles belt loop with engraved Indian Head nickel snap

Tattoo Your Motorcycle With Custom Engraving

Ever since we saw the bike built by Bryan Fuller on Cafe Racer TV on Discovery channel, we have been hunting down good photos of the bike. Solid details is what we were after and finally those cool images have arrived in a large scale. Luckily we found them by chance over on Totem's site. If ya haven't seen his work with spray paint, we know you will be a fan for sure now.

Fuller Hot Rods and Customs

The devil is in the details

The bike as a great stance in the process of being built

Fork tubes are full of details

Really dig the bare metal finish

New swingarm and mono shock add a great touch

More detail on the left fork

Engraving on this bike is top notch in the style department.

The Temple of Muses By Bernard Picart

Found this posting over at Neatorama which then added it from Bibliodyssey about these amazing copper plate etchings from the 1730's by French illustrator Bernard Picart. The images were produced in a book called Neueröffneter Musen-Tempel, (Temple of the Muses) with 60 copperplate engravings, mostly illustrating stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.


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Link to original post or read more info below


Bernard Picart (or Picard) (1673-1733) was a French book illustrator and one of the outstanding engravers from the first decades of the 18th century. His most famous work - see: Designer Religion - was an enormous compendium of the world's religions.

In 'Neueröffneter Musen-Tempel', a collection of mythological fables and stories (most notably from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses') is presented, accompanied by sixty copperplate engravings by Picart. The illustrations are superior in quality, even as they appeared in 1733 in the fading light of the Baroque tradition. The fabulous ornate border patterns lend the compositions something of a formal quality like framed paintings; indeed, Picart drew inspiration for a number of his engravings from mid-17th century works by the Rubens student, Abraham van Diepenbeeck. But the majority of the designs are by Picart himself.

Motives listed for Picart's illustration include: Alcyone, Alpheus, Andromeda, Apollo, Arethusa, Argonauts, Argus, Aristaeus, Artemis, Calais, Cassandra, Castor, Ceyx, Cycnus, Deucalion, Dioscuri, Echo, Enceladus, Endymion, Eos, Eurynome, Giants, Glaucus, Harpies, Heliades, Hera, Hermaphroditus, Hermes, House of Hypnos, Io, Iphis, Leander, Leucothoe, Lycaon, Memnon, Niobe, Niobids, Oeneus, Palladium, Pan, Perseus, Phaethon, Phineus, Polydeuces, Proteus, Pygmalion, Pyrrha, River Gods, Salmacis, Selene, Semele, Syrinx, Tantalus, The Flood, Tithonus, Trojan War, Troy, Underworld, Zetes, Zeus [source]

'The Temple of Muses' was published in France and Germany simultaneously in 1733 and includes captions in English, French, German and Dutch below each illustration. The images above are from a 1754 edition published in Amsterdam.

The Chaos Of The Origin Of The World

Achelous in the shape of a Bull is vanquished by Hercules

Hell

Ulysses and his companions avoid the charms of the Sirens

Amphion builds the walls of Thebes by the Music of his Lyre

Arion preserved by a Dolphin

Atlas supports the Heavens on his shoulders

Bellerophon fights the Chimaera

Transformation of Cyguns into a Swan and Phaeton's Sisters into poplar trees

Glaucus changed into a Sea-God

Hercules' Combat with the Hydra

Ixion's wheel

Sisyphus's stone

The Dioscuri or Castor and Pollux the Guardians of Mariners

The Fall of Icarus

The Moon and Endymion

Vintage McDonald Engraved Aluminum Hard Hat

How much pride do you take in your work? Would you consider a one of a kind engraved helmet to carry to work, day in and day out? Think on this for just a minute though. In a time when we are losing craftsmen along with skilled laborers and being force fed into buying mundane products with a shelf life of just a few years, gems like this stand out akin to gold flakes on the bottom of a California river bed in the mid 1800's. Engravings on something as simple as a roughnecks helmet speak volumes and hopefully we can get back to a time when craftsmanship is highly valued and respected across a wide spectrum rather than in just niche circles.

Bid on this treasure through ebay

Engraved Aluminum Hard Hat

Engraved Aluminum Hard Hat

Engraved Aluminum Hard Hat

Engraved Aluminum Hard Hat

Engraved Aluminum Hard Hat

Otto Carter - Master Engraver

We are huge fans of anything created by hand. The mass homogenization of all that is our everyday existence makes it even harder to find true craftsman anymore. This makes me think of my disdain for certain style springer front ends that just don't have the soul of an OEM style Harley or Indian. Valiant effort maybe but its just that lack of adding all the details that make those original ones so great and the rest seem subpar. Yes, we get it, time is money but I think pushing through that barrier and truly creating something new and in your own vision is what separates the wheat from the chaff. Same goes for anything you create, make it your own and not just a rehashed vision taken from someone else.

Thinking along those lines its easy to see how such a talent as Otto Carter stands out amongst the crowd. Good ol' Trent over at BikerMetric.com posted a photo of one of his projects and it made my jaw drop. Not only was it a motorcycle tank but it was also cast in 1/4 inch aluminum to which he could engrave a masterpiece. The work is beyond good and knowing that some proud owner will be filling this baby up with octane and roaring down the highway almost brings a tear to my eye.

Otto Carter - Master Engraver

Hand Engraving In Metal

Got some ideas on metal work to be done to the Buell Street Fighter build and going for a true custom in the finish. Forget paint to let the bike come alive, lets go back in time and do what the true craftsmen did to make an object be enjoyed for a lifetime. Seeing his handiwork and knowing whats possible to be done with a hammer and chisel is what will set this build apart. Great thing about this build is that its in no time crunch and will be enjoyed throughout the build process. Working on engraving ideas for the primary cover and for the cam cover, along with a few other main components.