Complex sentence: The chief engraver made final adjustments directly to the master die, rather than modifying a larger model to be placed in a reducing lathe, the technique his father and predecessor as chief engraver had used; it was the way Charles Barber preferred to work.
Split into simpler sentences: The chief engraver made final adjustments directly to the master die, rather than modifying a larger model to be placed in a reducing lathe. This diework was the technique his father and predecessor as chief engraver had used; it was the way Charles Barber preferred to work.