Hi Connie,
I certainly wish you well in your endeavors. Working with gravers has
been discussed, and it’s a valuable skill to be added. Your gravers
have many uses from fancy stone-setting styles, to basic clean up, to
seat cutting, to pushing up stitches for positioning pieces. You will
accumulate different kinds and sizes of gravers as you go along, so
what you buy first will depend in part on what you want to do with
them. A square grave is an excellent start for general purposes, but
it is also more difficult to sharpen than others since it needs to
have 3 surfaces prepared. A round graver will only need to be
sharpened on the face, the rounded edge will still raise the stitch
you want for positioning purposes. If you buy a #50, ( the smallest
round), there will be very little difference in appearance of your
stitches from the use of the square. Another graver which you could
use for the stitches would be an onglette, (recommend #0 or #1 to
start, #3 for stone setting). It’s very similar to the round but
comes to a point instead, and you can still just sharpen the face to
45 degrees to use it for your immediate purposes.
Your gravers and handles are usually purchased separately. If you use
hand gravers, the graver will have to be shortened, and fitted to the
handle. (I use the half-mushroom, my hands are about medium, and my
average graver length is about 41/2 inches overall. Just a general
guide, you must make it for your own hand) ) The back end of the
graver is what is removed, a safe way is to do it by cutting v-
grooves on each side of back where it should be cut. Then snap it
apart. You will have to re-grind the back a bit to fit into the
handle. Drill a pilot hole in the handle first, place the graver
sideways in a vise, and gently tap the handle into place, being sure
to maintain the alignment between the bottom of the mushroom, and
the belly of the tool. The Gravermax, or other systems, each have
their own handpieces, and handles for use with the quick-change ends.
They sell gravers pre-shaped for the quick-change ends so you save so
time and material, although they may still have to be adjusted for
length, and will still need to be sharpened before use.
The GRS sharpening system will save you alot of time in sharpening
and will give you consistent angles each and every time you sharpen
any particular graver. The fully adjustable holder is the way to go.
(The holder is the key, there are homemade versions of the wheel out
there.) You can sharpen by hand with sharpening stones, and finish
with 4/0 emery paper on glass. Then you can use diamond spray on hard
leather for a mirror finish. You must maintain a short uniform stroke
throughout the process to keep the edges crisp.
The Gravermax will definitely help to increase your control, by
providing a controlled power so you stop when you need to. It’s an
investment, and not necessary for what you want to do now. Taking a
class if you can, will go a long way to learning this beautiful
skill. Fine hand engraving is an art unto itself, but the skillful
use of the graver will serve you well in all of your bench
adventures.
Melissa Veres, engraver