sharpen liner graver.

[MRoyse]

I just ordered a 6 line graver tool from GRS, how will I go about sharpening this, I have not seen anything on the GRS site either.

 

[Mike Cirelli]

It depends what you want to use them for. Using it for western style I radius the face slightly and slightly bent. That will make nice curved lines. For Florentine I usually use a bent liner especially on curved surfaces. It's a good idea to swipe the graver along a piece of leather with some diamond spray on it. After using them for a while you'll see what will work best for you.

 

[mitch]

And by “radius the face slightly”, Mike means side to side across the face, not top to bottom. You need to sweep the graver thru a small arc while holding it at the proper sharpening angle. It doesn’t take much.

 

[AllenClapp]

It depends what you want to use them for. Using it for western style I radius the face slightly and slightly bent. That will make nice curved lines. For Florentine I usually use a bent liner especially on curved surfaces. It's a good idea to swipe the graver along a piece of leather with some diamond spray on it. After using them for a while you'll see what will work best for you.

Do you use the flesh side or smooth side of the leather with diamond spray on a liner?

 

[Mike Cirelli]

Allen, the smooth side.

 

[JJ Roberts]

What face angle is the best? J.J.

 

[Mike Cirelli]

J. J. I usually grind mine with about a 45° face. I don’t like them with to low of an angle they tend to dig in to much.

 

[MRoyse]

And by “radius the face slightly”, Mike means side to side across the face, not top to bottom. You need to sweep the graver thru a small arc while holding it at the proper sharpening angle. It doesn’t take much.

I do not have the graver yet so I may be wrong but it being a 6 line I imagine it will have 6 individual lined "grooves" and I am trying to figure how each individual groove will be sharpened over time.

 

[AllenClapp]

I do not have the graver yet so I may be wrong but it being a 6 line I imagine it will have 6 individual lined "grooves" and I am trying to figure how each individual groove will be sharpened over time.

You only sharpen the front face, which simultaneously sharpens the face of each vee cutter. You do NOT sharpen the bottom. There is no heel. If you turn the face down on the hone and hold it steady at the face angle that works best for you, you will get a flat front face. If you rotate it slightly side-to-side [NOT up and down], you will slightly round the front face. If there are any burs on the bottom edge, you can remove them by dragging the liner backwards across a piece of leather that has been sprayed with a diamond spray. That will also polish the sides of the teeth slightly and brighten the cut.