On Sat, 8 Nov 2014 18:04:57 -0600, "Paul K. Dickman"
wrote:


"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

Oh, wow. Making of the the smaller, simpler versions of one of those
machines would be a great long-term project for a serious hobbyist.

IIRC, you may have brought this up before? I think I remember seeing
those pen bodies, right?

BTW, somewhere in the world there is a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR with a
100% engine-turned body ("engine turned" as we mortals use the term --
the overlapping circles are perhaps 1-1/2 in. diameter). I saw it once
on TV and then could never find out anything about it.

This is the car without the fancy decoration:

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/show.php?num=1370

Number 722 was the one that Stirling Moss drove to win the 1955 Mille
Miglia -- the last one ever raced.

--
Ed Huntress