Carving HOBO Nickels

I admire the art of Hobo Nickels. I am interested in trying my hand at it after seeing some incredible things by the artist BilZac here on CoinTalk... I was curious if there are any websites out there you guys know of that teach the art of it? Over the past few weeks I've played around with different ways of carving them and am having fun with doing some basic stuff, but I want to learn of some of the finer aspects of the art like burnishing and blending to make the coin look better once the carving is finished. I want to blend away some of the cut marks and give the coin a finished appearance...As well as anyother helpful hints tricks of the trade...Any ideas out there?

 

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BTW... I have found http://www.hobonickels.org/ to be very interesting, but I just can't find any information on process or tecniques...

 

click on the Hobo history group button top right. Its a forum that says they will help
anyone

http://www.hobonickels.org/conley04.htm


http://www.engravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=409&page=3

This one looks like what your after Dak

http://www.igraver.com/finlay_hobo.shtml

 

Excellent Twiggs, the engraving forum is just the ticket I was looking for.... THANK YOU!!

 

dak, let us know what find out.

Lou

 

And show us pics of your hobos.

 

Give it a try dak! Let us know how it goes.

 

I can barely draw a stick person, so I'm always amazed when people have these kinds of skills.

 

After you learn the basics, it practice, practice, practice..I,ve been carving coins 11 years and have slowed way down the last few months to enable me to engrave other things..I,ll probaly always carve a few coins every year, but not like i used to..

 

Keep us posted and let us know how it goes.

By the way, billzach's stuff is simply amazing! :thumb:

 

Dak, let us know when you get a job so you don't have to make your own money

 

ROFLMAO!!

 

Ok at the risk of certain embaressmant, I'll show ya'll my first nickel carving... Maybe as I continue and show other carvings you can see improvement.... This nickel was fun to make but I am not satisfied with it, the cuts in some places went too deep and some places not deep enough. It seems its a bit tough to cut metal with primitive tools... Anyone got a Graver they want to give me?? Anyway... Be gentle folks, I can't take too much humiliation...

 

Dak, that's awesome! For the first try I'm going to have to say that is really good. I doubt I'd be able to do it that well. What tools did you use? I'm interested in trying it too.

 

That is fantastic dak!!

 

Dak, that's extremely good. You should be encouraged to continue.

 

Well I credit most of my inspiration for getting started in this to seeing BillZach's posts ... So I hope a revised copy of his work is seen a flattery and not an insult nor an attempt to belittle his work as what he does is obviously far better. I'm just using ideas I've seen as a model while I'm learning... Thanks for the inspiration BillZach!

BTW.. Thanks for the compliments folks... I really enjoy doing this, its good to work with my hands again, I havn't had this much fun since I left gunsmithing behind!

 

I couldn't do that after 1000 tries, you did it after your second. WOW

 

I have been using my Swiss army pocket knife, an exacto blade, a polishing cloth with jewely polish, a nail and a carbide cutter tip in my dremel...

 

Feel free to use any of my past subjects in your carvings, i get a lot of my ideals from watching people i see in malls and on vacation, you,ll see people with a large nose, small nose, big eyes, little eyes, big ears, little ears, etc..When we got back from galtinburg tn. last year i carved 4 or 5 subjects i saw there..