"Tear Drops" are making me cry...

[JBrandvik]

I am working on a custom folding knife with top bolsters only. The bolsters are nickel silver. I have cut an interlaced scroll design and I wanted to use tear-dropped folded leaves.

I am having a difficult time getting nice, smooth tear drops in my leaf folds. I have tried everything in the arsonal, (Round, 120, 90 and knife). Any advise on the best tools and techniques? I have tried attacking the tear drops from the fat end (bottom) and from the top and the results are both ragged looking.

The leaves on this project are already cut and the design is fairly complex with roughly 20 leaves per bolster. They are only about 2mm wide on average, restricting the bottom of the tear drop about .25 mm so I don't have too much room to play with.

I have considered trying a little punch to define the bottom of the drop, but I don't want to raise an edge around the punch mark.

Your help is mucho appreciated.

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Jim

I mainly use a 90 degree graver and how I go about it is.....................

1. Approach the tear drop and veer graver to the right hand side of the teardrop.

2. Quickly lift the back of the graver quite high. (your angle will vary from mine)

3. At the same time spin the vise/turntable fast so the the graver tip virtually remains in the eye of the teardrop.

4. Pick out the centre of the teardrop.

5. If a small bur is raised then scrape off with the edge of the graver.

If you have a very large burr then you havn't lifted the the back (hand end) of the graver high enough or you have too big a heel.

If the tip breaks continually then you arn't doing it quite right.

Practice a bit first on a scrap bit of steel and you'll soon get the hang of it. Confidence in your approach is a key factor..........be bold and decisive!!!

Now that's just the way I do it and others may have a better or different way of doing it.

Cheers
Andrew

P.S. The parallel Lindsay grind seems to make a slightly better job of it because of the relief angle on the belly. It leaves far less of a burr. In saying that I've also had good results with just a normal grind. On Ray Covers DVD he talks about rocking the heel of a graver between 15-25 degrees. This also works really well................just keep all the heels small.

 

[JBrandvik]

Thanks, Andrew.

Your instructions make a lot of sense. I think the main thing that was causing my ragged tear drop was that I wasn't raising graver handle nearly high enough on the rotation. The other problem is that this material is very soft. (Much softer that the brass I was using to practise the design on before I commited to the knife. I will kick up the angle much higher on the rest of the drops and see if that does the trick. I have also polished the heel more on the 90 so that should help too.

I was able to clean up my botched tear drops by making a near needle point burnisher and pushing the torn edge back down and alternatively wollowing out the tear drop with the point of the same tool. Essentially working the metal back together first from the outside then from the inside.

Today is definately one of those days when I am considering shaving my head!