If you are looking at this somewhat infernal looking machine and wondering what it might have to do with making mandolins, guitars, and banjos, let me explain. This is a Gravermeister and this one happens to be an older model which means it’s built like a tractor, and is just about as pretty. It’s used for helping someone engrave metal and Mother of Pearl. It can even “engrave” wood, although I think I’ll stick to my chisels when it comes to working in that softer medium. However, as physically demanding as it is on one’s hand to push a cutting tool through metal or shell, having a machine like this doing the hard work allows me to focus more on keeping the sweep of lines even and the depth of the cut uniform. I was given this machine by my sister, an engraver with a pretty well known name in the national community of engravers as she has engraved presentation guns for the group Ducks Unlimited. She’s good and is going to be a great resource for me as I transition away from the old school hand graver. I’ll be using it mostly on the Mother of Pearl inlays I’ll. be adding to my mandolins and banjos, much as they were decorated in the instruments built early on in the last century. One thing that does concern me a little bit with using this machine is a little label on it that states that, if a certain part of it isn’t lubricated as indicated it’s likely to explode. Talk about an infernal machine!
