"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...
To help you communicate with the jeweler, machinists call it "engine
turning." Jewelers call it "damaskeening.".
Ed Huntress

We call it that, because "engine turning" is done with an engine turning
machine.
It is an engraving process that carves the pattern in the surface of the
metal with a engraving tool moved back and forth, left and right, in and
out, by a series of cams The machines are either a circular rose engine ,
like a lathe, or straightline, like a planer.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rose... ning+machine+

A brief explanation (pg 14)
http://technical-journal.thegoldsmit...lletin-No7.pdf

Paul K. Dickman