Hi Dan,
My best advice for anyone in your position is simple. Get started at whatever level you can afford. Push gravers and hammer and chisel, however, seem to be becoming less and less popular every year. I think that may be because they require more out of you to get results that make you happy. Making you happy makes you WANT to continue to learn...
If you start with a serviceable pneumatic tool at the level of the Artisan, learn to use it well, learn a bit about marketing and business practices, you can always move up to the next level. Make your money back and then some. By the time you do that, you will know exactly what you need from personal experience. You won't have risked much... if you haven't noticed, the Lindsay tools rarely if ever show up on EBay or similar venues. They get snapped up as soon as they are offered.
By the way - it has been my experience that your engraving skills are only about 25% of the normal small engraving enterprise. Your business and marketing skills are far more important, and usually comprise the other 75%.
You can be one of the top ten best skilled engravers in the world and still starve to death.
You have to have the business skills!
And then there's the discipline it takes to put it all together so it works smoothly... whole 'nother book could be written here. No time to do it tonight.
Don't waste time. Get an Artisan. Get started.
Put in the necessary hours. Find out if hand engraving is truly something you want to do for a living. If not, get back on here and post that you want to find your tool a new home...
Brian P. Marshall
Stockton Jewelry Arts School
Stockton, CA USA
209-477-0550
instructor@jewelryartschool.com
jewelryartschool@aol.com
P.S. Where on the planet are you? There may be someone close enough to you to try out some of your options. I have at least one of every engraving tool ever offered for sale - during 37 years at the bench. Anyone in my area is welcome to stop by and test drive 'em. Might wanna call first... I seem to be spending the majority of my time at Lowes or Home Depot these days. 50 year old houses need lots of maintenance and never ending "upgrades". (Just got indoor plumbing and electricity to work
)