Hi,
i struggle with onglette heels
…on the hone, do you use the angle fixture, loose, and roll in the fixture? or freehand…wheel on or off?…
for under the scope i have a hard time holding the handpiece, while manipulating the graver with my other hand!
i should get the handpiece holder collet for my benchmate…its only a coupla bucks…
or not be lazy and setup my foredom handpiece holder, on a block, in a vice…in order to orient the handpiece pointing up…
julie
I do both.
Julie do you have a powerhone? Go here and it’s explained. Cirelli grind for a perfect parallel heel on an onglette with the Dual Angle fixture | The Engraver's Cafe
Hi,
yes, i have a grs powerhone and the older dual angle fixture…with and 260,600,1200, and ceramic wheels…
thank you for the link, i will check it out now!
julie
Look at TW Designs. They make a Lindsay friendly hone and also have a really cool image transfer product…Rob
I want one so badly. I wish our tools werent so costly.
Wow! Thats beautiful. Mine dont look anything as good as that!
Oh i didnt know about snapping off the tang.
Yep, you are correct. Ive got the book so looks like i need to start bavk on page one with this new knowledge. Guess my next big purchase will be gadgets hahaha
It doesn’t matter how it looks it’s how it works for you. A graver being sharp is the most important. It doesn’t have to be pretty. 
Lol I meant it as it looks perfect and sharp.
A little bit more to add.
I don’t think anyone has talked about fitting the graver to your hand. People have widely different hand sizes. That’s another reason that gravers are usually shipped longer than they need to be.
I have my gravers in a variety of lengths for a variety of purposes, but most of them are set up where the handle fits into the cup of my palm and pokes out about 1" past my fingers.
Then, this is hard to describe with written words, but if you’re going to sharpen your graver by hand without a guide, then you have to turn your hand and arm into something like a mechanical arm.
By that I mean you have to hold your graver solidly then lock your wrist and shoulders and only have movement from your elbow swinging back and forth. In the Sam Alfano graver sharpening video that I posted, you can’t see his arms, but you can see how solidly he envelopes the graver with his hands to see the motion that I’m trying to describe.
Every time that you run the graver on your sharpening stone you’re going to create a facet. That facet will tell you what you need to do next and whether you need to adjust anything. Your goal is to only have one facet, without any surface undulation in the proper angle.
It definitely takes practice!
I just watched this video. He does a pretty good job explaining how to sharpen gravers in a variety of ways from low tech to high tech.
I think you should consider buying one of these Crocker sharpening fixtures. It’ll make your life a lot easier without spending a pile of cash. Most every jewelry tool company has them. They’re even on Amazon for about $35.
Jeff
Jeff (or anyone), correct me if I’m wrong, but I have found that Crocker sharpeners, when going from a coarse sharpening stone to a fine one, either need to have the angle readjusted if the stones are not of the same height, or that both stones need to be the same height. And the sharpening stones need to be flat, not have worn spots.
Crockers are better than freehand, but powerhones or the Lindsey system are a lot better. And more costly…
Neil A
Hi Neil A,
I’m sure you are correct. Kimberley said that she’s having a hard time free handing sharpening gravers, but needs to invest money in other studio needs first. It looks to me that the Crocker system is the best of the inexpensive graver sharpening holders.
I own a GRS powerhone. That or the Lindsay system are a great way to go if you can afford it.
Thanks for the tip about the needing smooth sharpening stones that are the same height!
Jeff
Thats the one ive been looking at. I figured out having to lock my shoulder etc pretty fast, and also figured out how one tiny movement or shake can throw it off hahaha. Thank you for the video!
Thankfully mine are new, but it looks like its time to save for the grs or lindsey. First ive got to get my vacuum system to round out my lost wax empire hahaha. Ugg always something new to buy.
I’m a big believer in buying stuff as you need it. I never would have bought all of that expensive GRS equipment and paid to go to GRS engraving school if I didn’t already have that gig doing silver work for custom saddles.
All of the gadgets that you need will come to you over time. Lost wax casting is a huge investment! You can only do so much at once.
Truthfully, you don’t want to buy expensive equipment prematurely without having a need for it and thinking it through. I can’t tell you how many tools I own that have been gifted to me by folks who bought a bunch of jewelry equipment and never really used it. They gave it to me because they wanted to know it was being used by someone.
Jeff