Professional Hand Engraving is never a free hand affair: the engraver's hand needs to be guided manually.
Below is a metal plate being held in a vise. With time, master engravers develop their own jigs which they use to better hold items.
A diamond point is manually lowered and pressure is manually applied to make each hand engraved gift a treasure.
Below is a picture of the letter guide that the hand engraver will use to trace each letter.
Hand pressure on the white lever brings down the diamond point used to engrave.
This hand engraving device allows the engraver to get a feel of the material that they are engraving.
The engraver must apply pressure by hand which gives a more artistic feel to the engraving turning them to works of art.
The hand engraving technique leaves more room for human errors than other methods of engraving and it is more time consuming.
Limited hand engraving fonts are available.
The engraver has more freedom in the amount of pressure applied but less freedom in holding the engraved piece.