Serpents Engraving Styles

Serpents gathers every snake in the catalog in one place. Snakes are a long-standing favourite on revolver, knife and rifle engraving because a body that bends anywhere can fill a long, narrow part that defeats most animals. The hard part is consistency: an image model left to itself draws tangled knots and coils of every size, so the styles here are written to hold an even rhythm, with one constant body width, coils of equal size and spacing, scale rows that follow the curve of the body and belly plates laid down as regular bands. Gadsden Snake is the coiled rattlesnake reared to strike, drawn as a heraldic emblem, and Snake Scales is a tiling snakeskin texture of keeled diamond scales for grips, scales and inlays. For a scaled ground behind any design, including scrollwork, use the Snake Scales background treatment in The Fabricator. Check that fine scale outlines stay open on a test burn before committing a finished piece.

Materials these styles are tuned for: leather, metal, tumblers, wood.

6 styles in this family

Coiled Cobra — One hooded cobra coiling the full length of the part in even, regular coils, open-mouthed head rearing at one end Best for metal, wood, leather. Use this style in The Fabricator
Constrictor Coil Wrap — A heavy constrictor in a steady, even S-wave the full length of the part, solid saddle blotches; doubles as a border Best for metal, wood, leather, tumblers. Use this style in The Fabricator
Gadsden Snake — Coiled Gadsden rattlesnake emblem, reared to strike Best for metal, wood, leather. Use this style in The Fabricator
Rattlesnake Strike — A western rattlesnake lunging mid-strike along the part, fangs bared and rattle raised, framed by sagebrush and yucca Best for metal, wood, leather. Use this style in The Fabricator
Serpent & Scroll — Bold acanthus gun scroll with a single serpent woven evenly over and under the stems, open-jawed head at one end Best for metal, wood, leather. Use this style in The Fabricator
Snake Scales — Tightly packed staggered rows of keeled diamond snakeskin scales, each with a sharp centre ridge and a fine inner border, tiling edge to edge. Best for leather, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator

Using the Serpents styles

Open the Fabricator, load the outline of the part you are engraving, and choose a style from this family. The pattern is generated to fill your outline rather than pasted over it, so the result fits the part instead of being cropped to it. Run a test on matching scrap before committing a production piece — density that reads perfectly on coated metal can close up on open-grain wood, and the fix is usually speed or an extra pass rather than more power.