The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-10-07
Cameo Cutting.


One of the best examples of adroit
manipulation under the simple micro
scope is the operation of cameo cutting
as described in an article in our Home
and Science Gossip:
A visit TO a cameo cutters workshop
found him seated at table covered with
tools, varying from a 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 a 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 object that looked like piece of
alabaSter, just big enough to make a seal
for the finger of a man who did not OBJ
jcct to wearing large rings. Upon this
the artist was Just finishing copy, with a
pencil pointed to needle fneness, of pho
tOgraph in profile of a gentleman, which
was leaned against little photograph
easel before him. Having finished the
outline, he laid his pencil by, and taking
up IL lllC WIG UOOl uC SCIilCllctl lllc pCIl-
Gil mark around with it. Then he took
darning needle with a sharp point and
scratched the line deeper. He worked
with a magnifying glass at his eve, and
stopped continually to inspect the pro-
gress of his work with critical minute
ness. Then he went at it again, work
ing slowly, scratching over the same line
again and again, and always examining
after each scratch. He changed his
tools as he went on, and from the darn
ing needle descended to a trihing little
fragment of steel wire, not as thick as
an ordinary sewing needle, set in a slen
der handle.
With this he scratched and rescratched,
until the lines he had drawn with his
pencil had quite vanished, and thin,
fine streak of dark color had marked
the outline of the head he had been trac-
ing his way around Next he took one
of his burin-like tools and commenced
again. This time he worked on the out
side of the outline, cutting and scraping
at the surface until the white turned
gray, then brown, and finally vanished,
leaving the face in relief, surrounded by
a black ground-that is, the portrait re-
manned intact in the white substance
which formed the outer layer of the cam
co, while it had been cut away around
it to the lower or dark layer. The por-
trait or figure is modulated upon its sur
face until it assumes the roundness of
nature. The edges are left square to the
dark ground.
This is necessary, as, if they are grad
ually rounded down, the outline becomes
underlined toward its juncture with the
relieving surface, owing to the white of
the raised portion being partially trans
parent and permitting the dark to show
through it when it is thinned down.
Care is taken to 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 final polish is given it, however, with
putty powder applied dry with stiff
| brush, but the utmost care is necessary
in this operation, as the slightest slip
will ruin the work. This is the cameo
cutters work, the mountings being the
jewelers. work. The canoes sell, I'M
mounted, for about twenty-five dollars