We discuss the pros and cons of both techniques below:
What is hand engraving?
Hand carving involves using different tools, such as drill bits or carving knives made of hardened steel, to cut into your desired material. This will leave an impression on where material was removed. Hand engraving has many advantages and is still a popular choice used by artists today.
What are the advantages of hand engraving?
- Can create highly detailed, intricate designs that would be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate with modern technology. Each engraving is truly unique.
- You can easily control the cutting depth and width of the material, which gives you more freedom when creating artwork or products.
- Since hand engraving is performed by removing metal fragments, it results in a smoother surface than other methods such as laser engraving. This makes hand-carved pieces more resistant to wear and corrosion over time.
What are the disadvantages of hand engraving?
While hand engraving has many positive aspects, it's not the right choice for every project. Before deciding whether hand engraving is the best option for your next art or product creation, you should be aware of several disadvantages of using this technique.
- It takes more time to produce a quality work with hand engraved designs compared to other techniques. For larger pieces, you will need to plan several days for the engraving portion of the piece.
- Hand engraving can be an extremely difficult and tedious job depending on how complex your pattern or design ends up, which means it is easy to make mistakes that are much harder to correct than laser engraving.
-Hand carving is also more expensive than more modern engraving methods. Such as laser engraving.
What is laser engraving?
Laser engraving cuts a design into the material you want using your hands or a laser beam connected to a machine. It works similar to the way a pencil moves across paper, only on a much smaller scale and without any pressure from your hand. The laser can be focused as needed to create detailed images or patterns.
What are the advantages of hand engraving?
- Since the laser does all the work, there is less room for error and human error.
- It allows you to engrave more complex and detailed designs. Laser engraving also produces a cleaner, more defined finish.
-Laser engraving tends to be more affordable than traditional hand engraving. However, this depends on the amount of artwork required to create your design into a suitable vector file. This is required for machine engraving.
- Laser engraving takes less time than hand engraving and also allows for a more consistent finish. Laser engraving is a great option when you are a designer trying to create a more consistent finish. For example, like a logo or engraving the same design onto multiple necklaces.
What are the disadvantages of laser engraving?
Just like hand engraving, there are some downsides to choosing a laser engraved product. For example:
- Laser engraving can be difficult for less experienced artists making detailed designs themselves. This requires a certain level of artistic and technical ability as well as an understanding of a vector graphics editor such as Illustrator, Coral draw, Ink Scape or Sketch.
