Seeing as I've been lurking for a long time I believe that I should finally raise my voice here.

Seeing as I'm a reenactor, I was wondering: The engraving we see on such items as the Jorvik coin die, would of engraving been used, and if so, would the modern day engraving tools be able to somewhat recreate the actual engraving and therefore be able to put it on a sword?

(That did seem rather short on paper, in my head that question seemed like a long one..)

Tom

Old style, classic engraving was done with a hammer, and a sharp pointed tool called a "Burin" ( I think thats the name ? ). What we see today, mostly, is done with a rotary burr in a hand tool like a Dremel. If you put examples of both styles side-by-side, you'll immediately see that the hammer and burin is *much* superior.

There is really no comparison. You could see one, then see the other a week later and immediately know the difference.

For what its worth, I have always referred to the tool of engraving a "graver".