"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Sunday 15 February 2009

Spitstickers and Scorpers

Engraving tools have wonderful names. I came across two in Simon Garfield's book 'The Error World' - "..a nice chunk of English boxwood to be engraved with spitstickers and scorpers."


The spitsticker is one of the engravers main tools and is used for curved lines and making small round marks for stippling.

The scorper is for straight lines and cutting out large areas.

Other wonderful terms include Tint Tool, Lozenge Graver, Chisel and Bullsticker.


I thought this great example of a wood engraving was by the incomparable Andy English but it does not appear on his website or blog so perhaps I am mistaken.
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1 comment:

  1. shabby girl15 February 2009 at 01:56

    Wow! That is beautiful! People and their talents just kill me. See, this is what blogging does for me. It shows me things I would ordinarily have no exposure to.
    Love it!
    That being said...what brain surgeon named those tools!!!

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