Greetings from Croatia

[rweigel]

As I dug out my sharpening templates for this thread, it remined me of a method I devised (and somebody else might have devised as well) to hone a defined radiused heel onto flat gravers.

I do the same today with two adjustable stoppers on the post of the dual angle fixture, the top one set such that I could not go higher than the desired heel angle, and the lower one set to 5 degrees or so. The stoppers have to be set for each graver sharpening individually as their position depends on the length of the graver. Just leave the tool post angle loose, set the graver‘s heel onto the honing disc, go up to e.g. 20°, fix the top stopper such that it limits the movement further up, go down to 5°, fix the lower stopper accordingly. Now move the graver harmonically between the two stops, thus honing a radiused heel onto it.

Cheers

Ralf

 

[rweigel]

Here to pictures to demonstrate the functions of the stoppers at the toolpost

Cheers,

Ralf

 

[Pešekan]

My ArtGraver is finally home and all set up!
Again, big thanks to all who gave me good advice and introduced me to the world of hand engraving!

I've made the templates myself, sharpening will be made with diamond sharpening stones 240-2000 grit, and my "vise" is a silk pillowcase filled with rice...

I think this will be a good setup for my first hand engraving steps. I believe I will soon invest in a real vise or at least try to make something better, but for now this will do.

The only problem is that the gravers that come with the set are 2.3mm, and I have made my graver holders on sharpening templates for 2mm gravers. This means I have to wait for the blanks I have ordered from ebay for my first engraving attempts

I guess i'm stuck with rotary tools until further notice

 

[Sinterklaas]

What you can do, if you have enough thickness. Is to drill out the brass part of your template to 2,3mm or bigger. It will still work for smaller diameter if you have made a flat part where the locking screw will clamp. That way you will always orient the graver in the template the same way. If you dont make a flat spot you will have a hard time to line the angle of your graver up with the template. When you want to do resharpening.

The GRS QC collets also have a bigger hole than the graver-blanks I put in. And I have no problem sharpening them. Although I dont use templates. I use the multi angle tingy from GRS.

 

[rweigel]

Correction: If you put a 2mm blank in a 2.3mm hole with the indexing screw on the top, it will sit no longer in the designated center of the template, but about 0.15mm too low. It does not change much for the shape of the graver, but it will alter the heel angle. Too what extent I could not tell now, as I’m on holydays and about 3000 km away from my CAD system. But I remember, when I designed those templates, that there was hell to pay for small differences in the height of the bench stones when it came to grind the heels. So I would not recommend to open the holders‘ hole for the 2.3mm blanks, but to wait for the 2mm blanks. The 2.3mm blanks could be made into stippling tools and such without templates.

You will anyway have to align the brass pieces in the templates once you‘ve got your 2mm blanks. I fixed a blank (with the indexing flat ground on already) in the holder (use set screws with a flat end, not pointed ones) and clamped parallel-yaw pliers on it to check if the position of the indexing flat was horizontal. Turn the brass piece slightly with a wrench if this not the case. Than grind the gravers faces onto the blank slowly. If they are the same width in the front but run along the graver for different lengths, the brass piece is not in the center, it‘s position needs to be pushed in the direction where face along the graver is shorter.

The next check is, if the graver now shaped in the smaller template gets parallel heels in the bigger template of the pair. Grind the face first. Once the face reaches completely down to the two lower faces, try to hone very small heels onto the graver. Check their shape with a strong magnifying glass or (better) a microscope. If both are distorted in the same angular direction, turn the brass holder in the big template slightly with a wrench. If only one is distorted, or the distortion is not in the same angular direction, the brass piece is not centered in the template. Try to correct the brass piece’s position slightly and hone the heels again. Do so (grind the face from time to time if the heels become too big) until the parallelism of the heels is OK. It does not have to be 100% perfect, just as close to parallel and symmetric as you can get. As I mentioned in former posts, for the beginner a consistently sharpened graver is most important. It takes out a lots of unknowns of the learning process.

BTW, the indexing screws in the bigger templates (face / heels) belong into the opposed side of the brass holder… Or your shaped blank will be upside-down for face / heels honing…

Otherwise, as far as I could see, nice work on the templates!

Cheers

Ralf

 

[Pešekan]

Thank you again for the time you spend explaining these details

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i think i should turn the indexing screws of the smaller templates, not the bigger ones (according to the photo of your templates)?

Also, could you remind me one more time, the surface of the sharpening stone should be 13 or 13.5mm?

 

[rweigel]

I can see where the confusion about the index screw comes from. My brass graver holders are completely drilled trough, hence they have two holes, one at the top and one at the bottom. The set screws have to be in the top, as the flat surface on the graver that serves as index is at the top of the graver as well. Just as they are arraged in my picture in the former post in this thread.

The aluminium tube below the gravers has got an M8 thread inside, I used to screw it onto the „round“ templates to get better handling properties while grinding and honing the round shape and heel.

My bench stones are 13.5mm high, if I remember correctly. I could check their height again middle of next week, when I‘m back home.

Cheers

Ralf

 

[Pešekan]

Soooo, here I am, 2 years after my first attempt with hand engraving... Not very successful I have to admit.
Since I don't have anyone near me to show me proper technique of sharpening the blanks and actually using them in hand engraving, I have mostly used the micromotor in my projects for the past 2 years.

All in all, I have decided to sell my ArtGraver (Aliexpress version but still decent and mostly unused) to someone in Europe at half the price if anyone is interested to maybe pick up where i have left.

All sharpening templates, blanks, loupe (everything in the pictures) goes together with the ArtGraver. I thought of leaving the sharpening stones for some other uses, but if the future owner wants them too, I can include them as well.

So if anyone is interested, feel free to contact me.

My apologies if the post is not in the right thread, but I have posted it here because the future owner can see and read all the steps I have passed up to this place and hopefully continue where i have come to a stop.

Best regards,
Mauro

 

[dimovengraving]

Hello Pešekan,
If you still want to engrave with gravers and want to sharpen them yourself, and also, if you have a way to not far Bulgaria , come to my workshop (Sopot town) and I will explain to you how I do it
Devider and templates method

 

[rweigel]

Evgeni,

I would also very much like to learn some basics from you. Sharpening I mastered, but the learning curve in engraving is still flat. I could do basic things, but often they do not look right…

Cheers

Ralf

 

[alwayslearning2012]

Soooo, here I am, 2 years after my first attempt with hand engraving... Not very successful I have to admit.

I feel your pain. I was just as you. I had everything I needed, but no direction, other than trail and error.

In the end, I took a class in Emporia. It was worth every penny I spent to make the trip. I suggest to you, That if
dimovengraving is offering help, then make the journey to his workshop. It will be worth the trip to you in the end.

Good Luck,

AL12