Noob question : What shape gravers for starting practicing with pewter?

[jimzim75]

A lot of good points, in the above answers. Something that you should know is a normal graver will plunge into pewter. What is happening is there is practically no resistance
to the cutting motion. So you need more support for the blade to keep if floating on top of the metal. This means a long cutting angle along with more belly on the graver.
The cutting angle is how much lift you put on the graver and the belly is the rest of graver in back of the cutting angle. This should keep the graver from plunging.
Jiim

 

[momoyama]

Thanks Jim,

So less than 15 degrees on the belly then?

A lot of good points, in the above answers. Something that you should know is a normal graver will plunge into pewter. What is happening is there is practically no resistance
to the cutting motion. So you need more support for the blade to keep if floating on top of the metal. This means a long cutting angle along with more belly on the graver.
The cutting angle is how much lift you put on the graver and the belly is the rest of graver in back of the cutting angle. This should keep the graver from plunging.
Jiim