Stipple tool

[Doc Mark]

Hey guys and gals,

I've just run into a problem. I've been using a HSS faceted point stippling tool for all my background work. I've cut the facets at a 30 degrees "heel", four faces 90 degrees to each other to form a pyramid. Now I'm working on a stainless cigar cutter. The steel has several hard spots which are flattening the tool almost immediately. I've made another tool out of an old carbide dental drill, but it is not doing any better. ANY SUGGESTIONS! I'm stumped.

Mark

 

[Dave London]

Doc
If the area is small you might get away with grinding that area with a diamond point and matching the texture the best you can then ink the background. Also light grinding might remove the hard spot so you could stipple after. JMTC please let us know the outcome

 

[dclevinger]

Doc,
I used the faceted tool for quite a while but got tired of resharpening it. I've switched back to a plain old round tool. Just a quick twist on the wheel and it's ready to go. For really hard metals, I knock the point down and give it a very, very small flat which seems to help.
David

 

[Sam]

Mark: I use round carbide sharpened to a point and it withstands anything I engrave, including glass stippling.

 

[Peter E]

Perhaps one of the tools John B. provided instructions for would suffice. Instead of sharpening it as a graver it could be made into a stippling point. Those cobalt drill bits are pretty hard.

Peter

 

[mbroder]

I bezel set a .01ct diamond upside down in a steel tip. It works great for stippling in all metals that I have tried.

 

[pilkguns]

I would question that you really have carbide dental burr. they are made of HSS and carbide. If its carbide, you can see a definate change in color where the cutting portion has been soldered on. Like Sam said, I have not seen anything that I could'nt stipple , and certianly can;'t imagine any reason for cigar cutter to be harder than carbide.

 

[Doc Mark]

Thanks for the input guys!

I have another one of John B.'s gravers unshaped. I'll put a point on that and try again. What was weird about the cigar cutter is that 1/2 of the face I'm working on stippled easily and the rest is as hard as case hardened steel. All this on a simple flat rolled piece of stainless! The stipple tools that I had flattened immediately and began to give the surface a "hammered" look without the even, velvet-like surface that a good stipple gives.

Scott, you may well be correct. I was using a ground and pointed 1/4 round bur. These have very little carbide on the tip and I probably removed it down to the normal stainless shaft. I'll try it on a larger carbide bur head and make sure to not remove too much.

Mark, I would have thought that the diamond would shatter under the constant barrage of impacts against hard steel. I don't know how to set stones. Would there be any commercial sales of a diamond tip tool that I could mount in a QC graver holder? It would save on constant resharpening time.

Mark

 

[John B.]

Hi Doc Mark.
There are many sources of diamond mounted points.
Diamond scribes and diamond tools for drag engraving with can be cut off and turned down to fit in your tool handle.
But as Sam said, I have never found anything I couldn't texture with good carbide and don't use diamond points for this purpose.
Please Email me if you are still having problems with this and I will do something to help.
I owe you big time for your help with my dental handpiece.
John B.

PS> Doc, the ones you have are just good old cobalt I think.
I can make you one with carbide if you like.
As I said, I owe you.