[Gonzalo G]

Hi to all,

I send a salute from Mexico to all the members of this beautiful forum. You have a very nice and warm community of carvers here, and some of them are persons which I know in a certain way, and appreciate from time ago on other activities and forums, like my friend (if you permit me to call you that) Greg Obach, and Don Fogg, who is a very respectable bladesmith and my host in his forum. My name is Gonzalo Gutierrez de la Garza. I have a little experience carving some of my woodworks. I always felt atracted by carving and etching, but for one reason or another I left unattended this interest, mainly because I never had a teacher, and I was afraid of destroying a piece. I am what you call a hobbist, but time ago I lived from my woodshop. Now my interest in carving is more acute, as I am also a blacksmith and a bladesmith, and I want to learn how can I chisel and engrave decorations on my blades. In this moment, I don´t have means to post pictures of my work in the forum, but anyway, you don´t loose anything of great interest. I expect to learn and grow at your side, and I ask for your indulgence and guidance with my questions. Maybe I will not come here very often, because for medical reasons, I was forbidden time ago to read much in the PC monitor, but I will try to do it as often as I can. I saw the dots on the map, and it seems that there is another person from Mexico in this forum. I could not find him(her), but if you see my post, please send me a message. Maybe we can serve each other. Thank you very much for your attention.

Gonzalo

[Fred E. Zweig]

Hola Gonzalo,

Y bien venidos! Good to see more folks here and from different contries. What part of Mexico. I lived in Mexico City as a child and have spent much of my time on the border. I was born in Nogales, Arizona a stones throw from Nogales, Sonora.

Enjoy your stay here and we look forward to seeing examples of your work soon.

Fred

[mikemc]

Hi Gonzalo

Welcome to the carving path, enjoy your journey with many friends who reside here

Regards

Mike Mc

[Janel]

Hello Gonzalo,

Welcome to The Carving Path Forum. The dot on the map in Mexico is for Rocio Heredia, using "metalsmith" as this forum's display name, from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Website for Rocio, click here.

Janel

[metalsmith]

Thanks Janel... Hola Gonzalo, Bienvenido a The Carving Path!

[Phil White]

Welcome to the forum Gonzalo.

Phil

[Gonzalo G]

Hi,
I thank all of you for your welcome. I´m sorry if I delayed so much in my response.
Fred, I lived 15 years in Mexico City, where I learnt the little I know about silversmithing, from masters of the city of Taxco. But I was born 58 years ago in the northern State of Coahuila, in the border with the USA. I grow up in Monterrey since I was 8 years old to the moment I finsished my studies, and then I went to study my master degree in Mexico City, where I remained all those years, working as a public servant. Now I live in Saltillo near of the border, about 3 hours from Laredo. It is in the east side of the border, very far from Nogales and less than 90 kilometers far from Monterrey (about 57 milles). Rocio, I have been seeing your web page, I will contact you. I have friends and family in Monterrey, and sometimes I go there for a holyday.
My best regards to all.

Gonzalo Gutiérrez

[Fred E. Zweig]

Gozalo,

I lived in Laredo, Texas for 7 years as a child, on a ranch. Many of my classmates were from Nuevo Laredo. Small world. I am nearly your age at 57. At what taller did you work in Taxco? It is good to have you on the forum.

Fred

[Gonzalo G]

Hi Fred,

Well, I know Laredo very well, and a good part of Texas. I did not studied in Taxco, but with Taxco´s master silversmiths, then living in Mexico City. They were teaching in the school "Escuela de Diseño y Artesanías" (School of Design and Crafts). I went there for a year in the afternoons, when my work permited me to do it. They were not people accostumed to work in the commercial style used in most of the shops from Taxco, but in a more creative way.

I have yet not seen what line of work do you have in carving, Fred, and I was wondering if you can give me some orientation about how can I find profiles of metal hand gravers and some lessons in internet, to begin with. I intend to make my own tools. I know it is more complicated than that, but I need a starting point. Latter I plan to purchase a good book on this subject, once I know what would be the best one to begin.
Thank you very much for your attention.

Gonzalo

[Fred E. Zweig]

Gonzalo,

Most of what I do is to manipulate the metal. Repujado y cincelado (repousse & chasing). My experience with gravers is limited to removing the final portions of the metal to make the design more precise and detailed. There are members here who are very skilled with carving. I can help you with reshaping the profiles of hand gravers used for carving and engraving. Bright cuts, onglettes, burins, and scorpers. The profiles for most of these are the same and their length will be determined by the size of the handle the are mounted onto, the size of your hand and eventually your preferences. I believe there are others here on the forum with more experience in hand engraving and I will do whatever I can to help.

Fred

[Gonzalo G]

Great! This is also into my area of interest. I saw one of your posts, about a japanese type of overlay decoration, made using little grooves over the suface to overlay gold foil. There are many decorated swords in this way in the hindu and muslim countries, the call it "koftgar", and this also in my area of interests. But Latter I will ask my questions, in a more appropiate place, in the forum. Thank you very much.

Gonzalo

[DanM]

Everything you want to know about hand engraving is at the link below. graver sharpening to inlay and beyond. everyone there is as helpful as those on this forum.

Engraver's Forum

[Gonzalo G]

Dan, thank you for the info. I already went there because of your guidance.

Ford, I´m sure of what you say, and thank you for your welcome.

Gonzalo

[Greg Obach]

Hi Gonzalo

very good to see you over here...
i'm sorry to read that you have limited time at the computer... ...

take care my friend

Greg

[Gonzalo G]

Hi Greg!

Sorry for the delay, but as you already know, I don´t come here as often I would like. I appreciate very much your message.
My best resgards

Gonzalo