The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1882-10-07
Microscopic Dexterity of Cameo
Cutters.

One of the best examples of adroit
manipulation under the simple
microscope is the operation of came O
cutting as described in an article in
Our Home and Science Gossip:
IA visit to cameo cutters workshop
found him seated at table covered
with tools varying from triangular
pointed steel instrument to the most
delicate pointed bits of steel wire
fastened in handles. Very fine files
and knitting needles, set in wooden
grips and ground to infinitesimal
points, figured In the lot. On pad Of
leather before the cameo cutter was a
block of wood just big enough to be
grasped with his hand, and cemented
to the middle of it was an oval objec
that looked like piece of alabaster,
just big enough to make seal for me
finger of man who did not object to
wearing large rings. Upon this the
artist was just finishing copy, with a
pencil pointed to needle fineness, Of q
photograph in profile of q gentleman,
which was leaned against little pho
tograph easel before him. Having
finished the outlines he laid his pencil
by, and taking up fine wire tool he
scratched the pencil mark around with
it. Then he took darning needle
with sharp point and scratched the
line deeper. He worked with mag
nifying glass at his eye, and stopped
continually to inspect the progress of
his work with critical minuteness.
Then he went at it again, working
slowly, scratching over the same line
again and again, and always examin,
ing after each scratch. He changed
his tools 81 he went on, and frem the
darning needle descended to q trifiing
little fragment Of steel wire, not as
thick as an ordinary sewing needle, set
scratched and rescratched, until the
lines he had drawn with his pencil
hal quite vanished, and thin, fine
streak OF a dark color had marked the
outline of the head he had been tracing
his way around. Next he took one of
his BURN. like tools and commenced
again. This time he worked on the
outside Of the outline, cutting and
scraping at the surface until the white
turned gray, then brown, and finally
vanished, leaving the face in relief, sur.
rounded by black ground-that Is, the
portrait remained intact in the white
substance which formed the cutter
layer of the cameo, while it had been
cut away around it to the lower or
dark layer. The portrait or figure is
then modulated uDon it's surface until
it assumes the roundness of nature.
The edges are left square to the dark
ground. This is necessary, as, if they arr
gradually rounded down, the outline
becomes underlined toward It's juncture
with the relieving surface, owing to the
white of the raised portion being par
TALLY transparent and permitting the
dark to show through it when it IL
thinned down. Care is taken t., finish
this dark surface as much as possible
with the cutting tools, and so separate
the white from it as to leave it smooth
and unscratched. A fine polish is
given 10 it, however, with putty powder
applied dry with stiff brush, but the
utmost care is necessary in this opera
ton, as the slightest slip will ruin the
work. This is the cameo. cutters
work, the mountings being the
jewellers work. The canoes sell,
unmounted, for about $685."