Making my own gravers

[DocBernard]

Wanted to see if anyone else is using S7 tool steel for their hand made graver tips. Going to give it a try after I heat treat and temper them. I will admit, I am a tinkerer and if I can make something versus buying it, I like doing it and finding ways to do it.

 

[monk]

i am a tinkerboy as well. i've made a few gravers that functioned well. most were made of, "high carbon" steel. never heard of the s7 you mentioned. a metallurgist i aint !

 

[DocBernard]

I have an account with mcMaster carr (man, I love that company), and I found this metal. It's air-quenched so once it's heat treated it's supposed to handle impact really well. I bought 3' of it, so it should allow me to play around and mess up a few times.......since I only need 2" per tool. I also got some HSS and some tungsten carbide.

 

[FANCYGUN]

When I started engraving and nothing was available, I made mine out of plain old hardened drill rod. I still make punches out of drill rod.

 

[JJ Roberts]

I made my first graver's out of Starrett industrial hacksaw blade's and sharpen them by hand on stone's no power hone back then. J.J.

 

[gtsport]

Please keep us posted on how they work for you. I've made gravers out of O-1 which is fine for soft metal engraving, but even annealed steel is rough on them.

 

[FANCYGUN]

JJ ------ you are not THAT OLD
They did have powered bench grinders even back then. Cheapos like us bought them at yard sales Snap out of it LOL

 

[JJ Roberts]

Marty, I am that old my birthday was April 6th turned 84 I did had a power grinder & stones glad those days are over we now have better tools. J.J.

 

[MoldyJim]

S7 is a shock resistant steel yes, but to do that, it won't get as hard as a proper cutting tool alloy and probably won't hold an edge very well.

I have a precision ground angle plate I made as an apprentice from S7. Someone "borrowed" it and used as an anvil.
Now it has dents on one corner. Had it been a different material, say O1 it might have chipped but not dented.
I was able to stone the burrs off and save it, but the dents still hurt.
(No one ever fessed up of course.)

 

[DocBernard]

MJ, did you heat treat the S7 before use? It's said that properly treated S7 has a decent rating. I am playing around with different steels and alloys. I have HSS, S7, and tungsten carbide rod here.

 

[mossleycrue]

Wanted to see if anyone else is using S7 tool steel for their hand made graver tips. Going to give it a try after I heat treat and temper them. I will admit, I am a tinkerer and if I can make something versus buying it, I like doing it and finding ways to do it.

I like to find alternative methods also. Visit my Instagram page. #metalbadassery
I tried various materials like welding tungsten, allen keys, various drill bits, etc.... for making micro gravers.
I use micro gravers exclusively now instead of traditional gravers!

 

[MoldyJim]

MJ, did you heat treat the S7 before use? It's said that properly treated S7 has a decent rating. I am playing around with different steels and alloys. I have HSS, S7, and tungsten carbide rod here.

I sent it off to our mold shop heat treaters. it's maybe 57RC. Probably more like 55 though. It scratches pretty easily.

 

[fitzo]

S7 gets used for things like those giant teeth on earth moving shovels and bucket machines. Larger cross sections. Doesn't really have a terribly high amount of carbon at 0.5%. Looks like HRC 57 is about as high as it hardens.

 

[MoldyJim]

S7 gets used for things like those giant teeth on earth moving shovels and bucket machines. Larger cross sections. Doesn't really have a terribly high amount of carbon at 0.5%. Looks like HRC 57 is about as high as it hardens.

Yeah I should have used something like O1 or A2 but I had a chunk of the S7 given to me.

 

[fitzo]

Yeah I should have used something like O1 or A2 but I had a chunk of the S7 given to me.

I'd have tried it, too! You have me remembering that I purchased some "HSS" square stock off of Amazon and intended to try it for gravers. Doh, forgot. Thank you for reminding me.