A wood engraving is covered in ink to make a print.
A necessity for creating type with the invention of the printing press, wood engraving has since become an art form. While many of the tools used for the art of wood engraving look similar, they each have their own purpose for helping the artisan carve a beautiful design. Once made, designs are covered in ink and pressed on paper for printmaking.
Tint Tools
Tinting tools create straight cuts in your wood block and work to give your design extra dimension by varying the final ink shade. A wedge-like device, the tint tool has a triangular face, and you can buy them in a variety of widths. In addition to creating tint, you can also use these tools to outline your design.
The elliptical tint tool goes by the English name of spitsticker. These tools also come in different sizes, but the face has a more rounded, triangular edge than the normal tint tools. According to McClain's Printmaking Supplies, you can use the elliptical tint tool for drawing or outlining. You can easily widen cuts already made with this tool because its rounded face slices through wood more smoothly than other tools.
Gravers
Gravers cut much wider than tinting tools and prove useful for clearing large areas on the end of your wood block. Both round and flat gravers go by the name of scorper, even though they have different faces. The face of the flat graver looks like a rectangle, whereas the round graver looks more like the elliptical tint tool. However, a round graver has a flat top and bottom on its triangular face.
Another type of graver, the burin has either a square face or a lozenge face. The lozenge burin looks like an elongated diamond. You can use both of these to change the width of your engraving lines as you work. Burins come in different sizes as well.
Other Tools
The stippling tool has a small, triangular face and a curved body. This tool works particularly well for adding dimension to your wood design through the creation of dots and the raising of burrs.
Multiple line tools work like the tint tools, except they make multiple parallel lines with each stroke instead of just one. When adding tone to a larger area, you can conveniently use a multiple line tool and lessen the amount of lines you need to create. You can only buy these tools with a width of 1/8 inch, but with differing numbers of parallel lines.
