Burin (engraving)
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A burin is a steel cutting tool used in engraving, from the French burin. Its older English name and synonym is graver.
A burin diagram, showing the handle, shaft, cutting tip, and face. The bend in the shaft is especially associated with wood engraving.
The malformed hand of Hendrik Goltzius, which was especially suited to the use of a burin
Wood engraving
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Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face
Burin (engraving)
…away large portions of material at a time. An engraving burin is used predominantly by intaglio engravers, but also by relief printmakers in making wood engravings. Usually an engraver will have several tools, of different sizes and shapes of cutting face. The burin is held at approximately 30° to the surface. The…
Leather-covered sandbag, wood blocks and tools (burins), used in wood engraving
The Tench, A History of British Fishes (1835), by William Yarrell
Garb and weapons of the Ku Klux Klan in Southern Illinois, August 1875, photo made into a wood engraving.
This is a large wood engraving on an 1883 cover of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Such images were composed of multiple component blocks, combined to form a single image, so as to divide the work among a number of engravers.