A steel tool with a sharp, angled point used for engraving on metal or wood surfaces.
From French 'burin', possibly from Old French 'bure' (a point), or derived from a Frankish root. The tool was essential in printmaking and metalwork from medieval times onward.
Medieval and Renaissance master engravers could create photorealistic detail with just a burin and steady hands—artists like Albrecht Dürer made burins as important to their work as a surgeon's scalpel, and you can see individual tool marks in their masterpieces.
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