Burin

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Burin

Burin from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
burin meaning "cold chisel

Chisel

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, Rock , or Metalworking....
" has two specialised meanings for types of tools in English, one meaning a steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight , depending on grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten....
cutting tool which is the essential tool of engraving

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass engraving are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing images on paper as prints or illustra...
, and the other, in archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
, meaning a special type of lithic flake

Lithic flake

In archaeology, a lithic flake is a "portion of rock removed from an objective piece by percussion or pressure," and may also be referred to as a chip or spall, or collectively as debitage....
with a chisel

Chisel

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, Rock , or Metalworking....
-like edge which was probably also used for engraving

Engraving

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
or bone

Bone

Bones are rigid organ that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They function to move, support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red blood cell and white blood cells and store minerals....
.

ngraving burin is used predominantly by engravers, but also by relief printmakers in making woodcut

Woodcut

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Encyclopedia

Burin from the French

French language

Chisel

Steel

Engraving

Archaeology

Lithic flake

Chisel

Engraving

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
or bone

Bone

Printmaking

An engraving burin is used predominantly by engravers, but also by relief printmakers in making woodcut

Woodcut

Woodcut - formally known as Xylography - is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges....
s. Its older English name, still often used, is graver. The burin consists of a rounded handle shaped like a mushroom, and a tempered steel shaft, coming from the handle at an angle, and ending in a very sharp cutting face.

In use, it is typically held at approximately a 30 degree angle to the surface. The index and middle finger typically guide the shaft, while the handle is cradled in the palm. Of note is the 16th century Flemish engraver Hendrik Goltzius

Hendrik Goltzius

Hendrik Goltzius , was a the Netherlands printmaker, drawing, and Painting. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, noted for his sophisticated technique and the "exuberance" of his compositions....
, whose malformed hand was ideally suited for the cradling and guiding of a burin.

Burins typically have a square or lozenge shape face, though several other types are used. A tint burin consists of a square face with teeth, enabling the creation of many fine, closely spaced lines. A stipple tool allows for the creation of fine dots. A flat burin consists of a rectangular face, and is used for cutting away large portions of material at a time.

Archaeology

In the field of lithic reduction

Lithic reduction

Lithic reduction involves the use of a hard hammer precursor, such as a hammerstone, a soft hammer fabricator , or a wood or antler Punch to detach lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone called a lithic core ....
, a burin is a special type of lithic flake

Lithic flake

Chisel

Engraving

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
or bone

Bone

Spall

Spall are flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body and can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure ....
", in which toolmakers strike a small flake obliquely from the edge of the burin flake in order to form the graving edge. Burin usage is diagnostic of Upper Palaeolithic culture

Archaeological culture

In addition to its usual meaning in social science, in archaeology, the term wikt:culture is also used in reference to several related concepts unique to the discipline....
s in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, but archaeologist

Archaeology

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n cultural assemblages, and in his book Early Man in China Prof. Dr. Jia Lanpo of Beijing University lists dihedral burins and burins for truncation among artifacts uncovered along the banks of the Liyigon river near Xujiayao.

An example of a type of burin diagnostic of the archaeological stratum

Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguishes it from contiguous layers....
where they are found is the "Noailles" burin, a small multiple burin characteristic of the Upper Paleolithic cultural stage called the Gravettian

Gravettian

The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Palaeolithic. It is named after the type site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France....
, ca. 28-23,000 BP; these flake tools have been restruck and refined to give several chisellike edges and a blunt, grippable rear edge.