Golden Prayer

I have spent nearly 40 years perfecting my technique of engraving a flawless and unique masterpiece.

After around 300 hours, and by using a hand-made engraving tool sharpened from an antique hardened fine needle, I have engraved The Lord's Prayer, which is 70 words and 278 letters long, on the head of a gold pin. The work is too small to be seen by the naked eye and can only be read under a powerful microscope.

I've experimented on about 200 steel dress pins before using gold pins. Gold is probably the best metal for engraving into. I found the steel pins to be too brittle, causing the lettering to flake. Gold is very stable to work with, and it doesn't corrode or become affected by age. The diameter of the pin head is the standard 2 millimetres. Had it been six inches across, life would have been much easier!

I've tried all kinds of engraving tools for this miniature work, but the best by far are very fine needles made at the end of the 19th century. I paid fifty pounds to an antique dealer in Nottingham 20 years ago for 300 of them. I still have 30 of them left. The eyes are actually made of pure gold. The level of craftsmanship in these hand-made needles is second to none and has to be seen to be believed.

Before commencing the work, I realised that I needed to be in top physical shape to undergo the rigours of such a long, nerve-racking effort.

I am in good physical condition from spending many hours in the swimming pool. I have a resting pulse rate of 30 beats per minute and this has helped tremendously.

By wearing a medical stethoscope I could monitor my own heart beat. I aimed for one careful, controlled stroke at a time, between heart beats because my pulse created movements which affected the steadiness of my hand.

I estimate that there are 1,841 separate engraved strokes to complete The Lord's Prayer on the pin head. I work under a powerful microscope with my right arm tightly held to the bench with a leather luggage strap, allowing only my finger tips to move. Any movement in the building affects my steady hand.

I was engraving on a pin, early one morning, and became aware of a vibration as I looked through the microscope. It was being caused by a small mouse running along my work bench a couple of feet away from me. The quiet and stillness always brought them out.

Lorries passing outside were a constant nightmare in the early days. I've engraved about 200 pins in the run-up to my final one, often ruined through vibration which caused the graver to slip across the pin-head and obliterate several words with one cut. So frustrating! I've considered giving up many times.

On reflection, the strain of trying to hold my breath while attempting to engrave between heartbeats, and all the time praying that the point of the graver doesn't break while in the middle of a letter which is invisible to the naked eye - is quite the most ridiculous thing to attempt!