Engraving Styles
Engraving style can affect price as well as durability. Certain styles are better suited for items subjected to greater wear and use. The following styles are the most commonly requested for rings and other jewelry items.
"Bright cut" has been used on jewelry for as long as jewelry has been engraved. It is common and durable because cuts are deeply made using a wide, polished chisel, creating an almost carved appearance. This style requires the least time to complete. It is durable because as the surface of the ring wears over time, the bright cut areas will tend to shrink in size yet remain bright.
The below example is a 1 millimeter ring shank with milgrained edge.
"Western Bright Cut" is a variation of the traditional bright cut style. It includes wriggle and liner cuts. The example below illustrates the deep bright cuts in the relief areas (spaces between the leaves). Due to the liner and wriggle cut work, this style is more expensive to execute than traditional bright cut.
"Relief" style of engraving is where background areas are dug out and textured to create contrast in both color (usually darker) and depth. Leaves and elements of the scroll design are shaded using single point cuts (one cut at a time). This is a more expensive style of engraving due to the time required to relieve and texture the background areas as well as shade every part of the scroll design. While this style is extremely attractive, it is 2-dimensional engraving with all of the shading cuts on the surface of the ring. This makes it the least durable style because as the ring wears, the shading lines disappear first and the illusion of 3-dimensions along with it.
This ring is an example of mild relief engraving where the relieved areas have been stippled (textured with a fine point chisel).
"Sculpted Deep Relief" is the top of the line style of engraving. It is true 3-dimensional engraving, cut extremely deep and "sculpted" using punches to shape the elements of the design. This style requires the greatest amount of time to complete and will outlast all other styles of engraving. As the ring wears over time, there are no shading lines to disappear.
