"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."
Showing posts with label wood engraving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wood engraving. Show all posts

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.