Another "Old" way of doing something

[Ron Smith]

You may already know this, but to engrave inside of a ring they have holders for that, but it is really slow as you have to stop, loosen the vise, turn the work, tighten the vise, and so on until you get the job done. The older engravers used a crutch tip, as did I, held in the vise to rest the ring on and give a gripping surface. You press the ring into the grip to give resistence to the graver. You hold the ring in your fingers and rotate it with each letter. That is pretty fast, but you have to have a pretty good grip..............Ron S

Now how many of you already knew that?

 

[pierre]

hi, mister smith,
at Liège we put directly the ring in the miror polish jaw whose we put a thin carton fixing with double-face scoth tape. after we used the hammer and chisel method.
If we can't, we just open a little the jaw, we put a peace of cloth and with the fingers we pusch the ring in the channel between the jaw and we engrave with the pusch and chisel.
We have best result with the first method because the letters are more deep.

 

[pkasnes]

Good tips.

I have been using the holder from GRS. Or an old cork form a champagnebottle. Look at the picture. But I will try out the crunch tip, because of the gripping surface.

Thanks

 

[Ron Smith]

Pal, I don't see why the cork wouldn't work just as well. It might not be quite as strong, I don't know, but same principal. You can get through a ring engraving job pretty fast...........Ron S

 

[jimzim75]

Hi,
Well, I kinda like the GRS jig. For one thing I find it easier to do an S
with it because your able to spin the vice. I can also do at least two
words or about 10 letters without moving the ring in jig, rather I just move
the whole jig by loosening the vices, then reposition the next letter group.

Using the scope for this stuff is getting to be a must, at least for me.
Customers seem to be asking for more exotic fonts every day also.
The only real draw back seems to be crossing T's in the jig make a
larger angle to compensate for. This problem was solved around
1895 by a company call E.F.B. and there No 154 inside ring engraving
blade. I simple took one of these and ground it to fit a quick change
collet. It's a little awkward to use, but once you get onto it, it solves the
problem nicely.

The other problem is slipping of the ring in the jig. I solve this problem with
electricians tape. The tape tends to cushion the ring against the impact
force. The tape also conforms slightly so that jig gets a better grip.
The fact that's rubber also helps to prevent slipping. One roll will last years
as far as replacing worn out jaw liners. The tape can also be use in other
types of hold work on jobs.

Sort of like the crutch idea, but put my fingers in harms way?
I've pulled enough steel out of my hide that I'm leery of finding new
ways of doing so.
Jim