Beginner, new to Engravers Cafe, having trouble sharpening graver

[Marcie Rae]

Hi, delighted to be on the Engraver's Cafe. I'm a jeweler, initially learning to use a flat graver for bright cutting when setting stones. I inherited a GRS Power Hone with the Dual Angle sharpening fixture, plus other GRS equipment.

Despite all efforts, when I bright cut with a 42 flat GRS graver, sharpened to 50 degrees on the face and 10 degrees on the belly, my bright cut ends up with tiny lines, up and down along the bright cut surface. This isn't a great picture, but i think it shows my problem. When I use the wheels on the Power Hone (260, 600, then Ceramic with diamond spray), it wobbles a tiny bit as the wheels rotate. But, this problem is probably my inexperience. How do I fix it? Am I sharpening wrong, using the wrong angle (45 degrees) as I cut, cutting with the wrong pressure on the graver, cutting too shallow or too deep? I've tried varying all the above, with no success.

Thanks,
Marcie

 

[Chujybear]

I think that what you are referring to are chatter marks (I honestly can’t tell much from the photo). Chatter marks ( if that what it is ) will run perpendicular to your cut, think sleepers on a rail track.
I don’t know if I can properly describe how they come about, there are probably lots of ways, but as I see it, it comes from too heave of a pass on too tight a curve, or otherwise blighting in too deeply.. the tip digs in a bit too much, and then pops out, and you get a chatter effect.

If it is that your striations are running in the same direction as the line you are cutting, then the answer is easy. It is either you have moved on between the various grits too quickly and some of the toothe from the previous grit remains, or there is just some remainder of a bur on the edge of your tool.. you can strop it offf, or stab your tip into a piece of soft wood to knock off the bur

 

[AllenClapp]

As discussed above, I can't see the photo well enough but it sounds like chatter.

If the lines are in line with the graver, instead of across it, you can sometimes see an issue if you orient the graver with the diamond plate such that the moving surface is in line with the graver, instead of across it.

Also, you said that you used 260, 600, and ceramic wheel. If you skip the 1200 grit, you may never got have removed all the 600 grit marks out of the graver with the ceramic wheel, unless you spent a long time with ceramic. An additional intermediate 1200 grit wheel is expensive, but worth it in the long run with time savings and saving wear on the finer grit wheels.

 

[Marcie Rae]

Thanks so much for the responses. They helped. I also found the DVD by Sam Alfano "The Expert's Guide to Graver Sharpening" and one of its tips is that making the heel of a bright cut flat graver too big can create drag and make drag marks. I think that's what I was getting - chatter marks on going too deep on a steep curve with too long a heel. I resharpend and tried Sam's recommendation for a radius heel, sharpened with a few strokes on a ceramic wheel, between 10 and 30 degrees, and that is working great. I look forward to more success with gravers, and enjoying the generousity of the experts on this forum to a beginner