Engraving 925 silver and other metals

[Sebastian duran]

Hey everyone,

I’ve recently started engraving silver signet rings and yellow gold rings and I’ve noticed that i been getting some heel drag and the material feels really hard. I originally had a 45 degree face and fairly short heel on my 120, 105 and on my flat graver, I had a 45 face , with the radius according to Sams videos. I change the face to a 55 degree to see if I would get a different result.
I been practicing on copper and brass and I would like to be able to get a butter feel when cutting silver other materials also. Do you guys have any resources you can share or point me out on the right direction?


thank you

 

[allan621]

The heels of your tool may still be too long. Really take them down. Mine are about a quarter of a millimeter. If your heel is too long the back of the cutting portion of the tool drags across the outer rim of the cut, tearing it slightly. And let the tool do the work. Part of the problem may be you helping with too much back end pressure forcing the tool to go through the cut quicker than it should. I use a 96 degree Lindsay template for sharpening script( square ) gravers. I'm assuming the face is 45 degrees, I've never checked.

Allan

 

[Sebastian duran]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I did notice ive hasten the turns which leads to the metal tearing and leaving heads. I’ll try the lower heel And see the difference. I’ve chsnged the face to a 55 degree and changer the graver max to 2500 rpm and is been cutting better.

 

[allan621]

One of the things that's important is not rushing the cut to see what it going to look like at the end. In the old days, or in my case, the even older days one of the techniques was to turn the block into the work. When I switched from hand tools to the Lindsay airgraver it took me a while to learn to let the tool do the work. Just guide the tool and turn the block into the work. Or guide the tool on straight cuts with just enough back pressure to keep it moving forward, but not enough to help the tool with the actual cutting.

I'd go back to a 45 degree face, very tiny heels well polished and not that much power. Over time you will get a handle on when to boost the power and when to bring it back.

And the best advice I ever received was to go as slow as possible. Over time you will naturally speed up without even realizing it. Silver is a soft metal that doesn't need that much power to cut. Copper comes close. Brass can be a little harder to engrave. Stay with the copper until you get it cutting like you'd like to and then move onto brass. Learning on one metal makes you focus more on the cuts and tool idiosyncracies. When you are comfortable with that move onto brass and other metals, including pewter and bring everything you learned from cutting copper with you. It should work out better.

Allan