There's no punch work on the gold gun. It's done with the same technique as the RegMag,,wriggle cutting,,or how ever you want to spell it. It's been around for as long as engraving on metal has been around. Looks like a few single point cuts in the stems of the 'flowers' too.
The RM does have the more traditional single point engraving work in the flowers & shading plus the cross hatch work in the background around them. A few well placed hollow point punch parks here and there.
Wriggle,, riggle,, wiggle,, cutting does indeed remove metal. It is not a scratch technique nor a laborious criss-cross punch technique. It is quick to learn, easy to control and can cover alot of area in a hurry.
The gold gun engraving was probably done in little more than an hour if applied by someone skilled in the technique. The RM somewhat more but certainly less than a full day at the bench if he/she knew what they were doing.
Here's a few rather quick pics I took,,unsized 'cause photoshop didn't want to work for some reason...
A few different sized flat gravers being used for wriggle cuts & one liner for the same. You can see the steel cuttings in front of the graver in one pic.
Not the best pic but cutting and taking a pic at the same time wasn't easy!
Steel being cut is actually the shank of a home-made letter-stamp so it's quite tough steel.
In this type of cut the flat graver is 'walked' across the surface to cut the criss-cross pattern. Altering the pressure, speed and angle will get different results.
(Pics off color from the florescent lighting)
I then added a freehand 'flower' similar to the type on the RM with shade cuts, all single point cuts as on the RM and a few hollowpoint punch marks. Cut time for the flower.. 2 minutes. Some of this stuff can be done very quickly.
The top jaws of the engaving vise look kind of worn close up after nearly 40 years.
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