In order to achieve a greater engraved depth and more 3D effect I start out making a lost wax casting and then doing the final gravure work with diamond and carbide rotary air tools. I generally work in nicr or cocr and then hand polish. The "gun" itself fires a commercially available blank although most of my work is collected for display....and yes these metals are VERY hard.

Most of my work is inspired by original work of the 18th C. of colonial America. These knives were all started as doodles of ideas then made in an intuitive fashion or one could say by the seat of your pants.
Enjoy !

Most of my jewelry is formed from sterling silver and hand engraved. The engraving being the focus of my work, but one has to build the canvas first.

Some views of different rifles I've built with the focus on the art. You'll notice that I generally build a used looking rifle, I like the cared for warmth of an object, but bright and shiney is an option.

My creation of presentation grade pipe axes or commonly termed pipe tomahawk. A cutting edge on one half and a pipe bowl for smoking on the other.