Skewed or side-angled graver face

[Foster]

After reading about it in the Jewelry Engraver's Manual, I've been experimenting with grinding a square graver so that the right side of the face is angled forward of the left, theoretically making it easier to roll the graver and vary the width of cut.

Obviously, one solution would be to simply use a wider geometry like a 105 or 120 but I prefer a square graver and this grind seems to work without significantly altering the way the graver handles. I was wondering if anyone else does this and if so, what angles do you prefer? Any drawbacks to doing this? Thanks!

Jesse Foster

 

[sam]

I've never found it necessary, especially with handpiece use. I have many dozens of antique push gravers from other engravers and only a few are sharpened this way.
Try it and if it works well for you, use it.

 

[Foster]

Thanks for your reply, Sam. It may not be the tool for every situation but as a push engraver, it's a useful addition to my bag of tricks.

 

[Gemsetterchris]

That's probably because they were hand sharpened & It's not so easy to get a perfectly straight angle, but easier to lean slightly in favour.

 

[Marrinan]

I sometimes, on deep relief background, us an onglette with the face ground at a 2 or 3 degree angle to either right or left depending on which way I need to roll the tool for cleaning up my edges or getting a wider roll than is left by a 90. By doing this I get a side cutting tool that is easy to roll slightly to achieve a nice slide sloop The side of the tool is what I cut with rather than the point. You don't want to cut deep just cut with the side of the tool. Fred

 

[Kevin Scott]

Forgot all about this geometry. Before I owned a computer, or joined the forums, this is the geometry I used. I was hand sharpening then, and like Chris said, it was hard to make a graver that was truly symmetrical. But it was still hit or miss. Optical illusions come into play. Sometimes I got a graver that was not too hard to push thru the metal and steered properly. Sometimes not, and would take me awhile to find out why.

Some books say bring the face forward by grinding the heel, some say by grinding the face. Never learned which was better. Probably do to inconsistencies of hand sharpening.

Been using a symmetrical graver for about the last 4 years. Rough them out using a fixture. Then hand sharpen until its seems the geometry is off.

I should try this again now that I know more about sharpening.

The only drawback I can think of for this is you can only turn the work in one direction. Which is not a big deal. Just make another graver with the other face forward.

I think this geometry was advised partly to lessen heel drag.

 

[Foster]

Thank you for your replies! I'm definitely going to keep experimenting with this geometry. *