How to Engrave With a Copper Wheel

Copper engraving can put a wonderful design on glass like this.

Copper wheel engraving is more akin to sculpting than drawing because of the depth of the cuts, but this alternative engraving method can create some wonderful and unique effects like giving the surface both a matte appearance and sheen at the same time. The practice of copper engraving glass began in ancient Rome and remains an excellent way to decorate glass still today. If you are willing to invest the time in the craft, you will be able to create some marvelous art.

Things You'll Need

• Tracing paper
• Paraffin oil
• Grease pencil
• Tape
• Pen with oil-resistant ink
• Lathe securely attached to a workbench
• Thick glass
• Mixture of linseed oil and fine emery powder

Instructions

Put the engraving design on the glass

1. Sketch your engraving design on the tracing paper with a pencil.

2. Rub a small amount of paraffin on the back of the tracing paper, and also on the back; fill in the drawing's area with the grease pencil.

3. Tape the tracing paper onto the glass so that the sketched design faces out, and trace it again with the pencil.

4. Remove the tracing paper from the glass. A tracing of your sketch should remain.

5. Trace the sketch on the glass with a pen that uses oil-resistant ink. When this final tracing is dry, it will not smear while it is being handled during the engraving process.

Engraving the glass

1. Pour some of the linseed oil and fine emery powder mixture onto the edge of a copper wheel.

2. Attach the copper wheel to the lathe and turn it on.

3. Hold the glass against the spinning copper wheel and turn it to engrave along the lines of your etching. Add more linseed oil and fine emery powder mixture regularly to keep the copper wheel lubricated.

4. Experiment with different lathe speeds and size and shapes of copper wheels to see the effects on your engraving.

Tips & Warnings

• If your copper wheels are diamond-impregnated, you need to use a constant water drip rather than the oil and abrasive mixture to lubricate the wheel and absorb its heat.

References

• "Engraving and Decorating Glass: Methods and Techniques"; Barbara Norman; 1972
• Beer Stein Library: Glass Decorating Techniques