A large wall map could consist of up to 125 pieces attached to separate wooden bases. This was the master plate from which subsequent printing plates were made. In colored images each color would have a separate plate. One characteristic is that the lines in a wax engraving do not vary. A line remains the same thickness throughout the length because of the tools and light pressure used in making it.
Double lines remain parallel because of the double graver.
Point symbols, like state capital and county seat marks, are sharply defined and regular in shape because they are always made with the same tool. Wax engraving could be the source of this cartographic convention and the reason we recognize the symbols so easily today. The same symbols were continued into lithographic maps. Lines that were a series of symbols such as dots, dashes, and crosses were made using tools with wheels of those symbols. Ruled tints in a wax engraving usually have a wide band around them.