Check Out What I Just Bought

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Originally posted by thekidcollector

I think I see the part of LIBERTY there and the sign on the bottom of the hilt is your sign trademark?

Awesome, can't wait to see it!

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You are correct about the "DC" on the hilt.
It does not say "Liberty", however.
I'll keep everyone guessing until the big debut,
hopefully at my Denver ANA table #551 in August.

Mr. Carr I have read your website and if I am correct you wrote your own software to do these coins am I correct, some form of CAD? A few other questions, do you make a scuplture of each coin in clay (because I have heard you say you made sculptures a few times) before doing the actual drawing in the cad program? Do you also use something like a wacom tablet? Sorry for all the questions it is I was a commercial artist and though we did digital sculptures in CAD we never had to do a hard copy in clay (of course we never did coins/metals either). I noticed your software is for sale also, what all does it do, it is coin specific. I in no way would ever attempt to take your business away from you or anything I was just wondering how you do it and the stuff you use to do it with, I guess its just the artist in me. If you are uneasy answering any of these questions just skip over them and I will understand

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Originally posted by Bryan1315

Mr. Carr I have read your website and if I am correct you wrote your own software to do these coins am I correct, some form of CAD? A few other questions, do you make a scuplture of each coin in clay (because I have heard you say you made sculptures a few times) before doing the actual drawing in the cad program? Do you also use something like a wacom tablet? Sorry for all the questions it is I was a commercial artist and though we did digital sculptures in CAD we never had to do a hard copy in clay (of course we never did coins/metals either). I noticed your software is for sale also, what all does it do, it is coin specific. I in no way would ever attempt to take your business away from you or anything I was just wondering how you do it and the stuff you use to do it with, I guess its just the artist in me. If you are uneasy answering any of these questions just skip over them and I will understand

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Hi Bryan,

Yes, I wrote my own digital sculpting software - like a "CAD" (Computer Aided Design) program. Here is the process I use to make a coin:
1. Draw a sketch on paper and then refine the sketch.
2. Scan the sketch and import the scan into my software as a tif image. I also occasionally import digital photographs as well. For example, I used a photograph that I took of the Denver Mint exterior for the medal shown. The process involves converting the image brightness to surface height and then refining the surface via digital sculpting.
3. I use the various tools in the software (VS3D) to sculpt the design. Think of it as pushing digital clay around with a mouse, and pounding out the design elements with a hammer and then smoothing them out. The computer becomes quite a valuable tool here, but nothing can replace the artist's sculpting skill.
4. Once sculpted, I can generate a rendering of the proposed design for approval.
5. Then I use the software to output controls to run a computer-controlled milling machine. The controls are basically the 3-D coordinates (millions of them) through which to move the cutting bit. This is known as the "CAM" (Computer Aided Manufacturing) part of "CAD/CAM".
6. The design is cut as a negative (like the die) into a piece of hard black acrylic. This step is known as "CNC" (Computer Numeric Control). The carved acrylic is not unlike the epoxy galvanos used by the US Mint and others for making dies.
7. The carved acrylic pattern is mounted on a reduction lathe to make a die using a hands-off purely-machanical reduction/transfer process.

The advantage with this process is that the final product is guaranteed to look exactly like the approved rendering because both the 3D pattern and the rendering are generated by computer from the same source data. Eventually, I am going to try cutting dies directly on my machine

I don't use a Wacom tablet, although that would be a natural fit for the software. I have a customer that has used one with VS3D. The pen pressure values are not utilized, however. But VS3D has good visual feedback, and so I sculpt visually, not by feel.

VS3D is good for any type of 3-D RELIEF sculpting and 3-axis milling and carving. You could do everything from molds for cell phone cases to large fancy carvings on kitchen cabinets.

dcarr,
Just how many medals or tokens must you sell to make a design profitable as the Knights will start entertaining designs for our 2007 wooden dollar that doesn't have to be wooden but we will require control of sale to Knights of the Coin Table only (at least at this time). Would be interesting to know what is required to go with bronze or silver if you could email with specifics it would be appreciated.

WOW thats awsome, thanks for explaining the process I have wondered the answers to those questions since I received my denver mint medals from you when you first made them. I really appreciate you going beyond my questions and answering others I didnt actually ask.I always check your website out atleast once a month to see if there is anything new on there and I will continue to do so because I think your work is simply amazing

Terry, if you want to go this route with the Knight Dollar you can count me in for one, I would love to see the design he would make for that project

Personally I would love to pull it off in silver but it would take an organized effort out of everyone after we received a total cost to do so. I guess we could always put a few on ebay, hype them up as very rare as NO ONE other than Knights has ever been able to purchase such a medal or token regardless of what it is made out of! Who knows what a couple would bring under those circumstances? We could keep the design somewhat simple yet eye appealing but it will still take a pretty darn good auction or hefty donations from everyone to pull it off. Give it some thought and we will start this topic in the Knights forum. Generally speaking we would be looking at, I would say, raising a couple thousand dollars to get it done and then each of us would still have to purchase the coins wanted. Now what do we sell to raise a couple of thousand bucks?

If everyone donated a 1/10 ounce of gold and we sold it on ebay or at a legitimate dealer we would have more than enough to do it. Or say, 5 or 6 Eagles? One thing is for certain NO commitment will be made to dcarr until the goodies for an auction or sale are rounded up and in hand. Just how bad do all of you want a Silver Knight? See you in the Knights of the Coin Table forum.

Ok, let me know what you decide.
One thing you can do to perhaps sell more of the medals is to make multiple varieties using the same pair of dies.

I did a medal for my local Fort Collins Colorado Coin Club. From one pair of dies we made a satin-finish brass (for club members only), a proof-like brass, a proof-like silver, and a reeded edge proof-lke brass (for club members only). We also ended up making a second pair of dies, but that is a long story.