I know that we have discussed gravers in the past, but I went through
the archives and couldn’t find an answer to my specific question. I
don’t engrave and probably never will, but I do appreciate the great
amount of artistic and technical skill it takes to do this. I would
like to be able to use a graver to clean up bezels and remove some
solder and excess metal in some areas. I need help figuring out what
type and size graver(s) to buy and what minimum equipment I need to
shape, sharpen, and maintain them. I do see myself eventually
learning to set faceted stones and I will need some advanced graver
equipment and skill then. I currently just set cabochon style and
freeform stones that I have cut and polished myself. It’s taken me
forty years to get to this point, so who knows when I will move on to
faceted stones. As always, any help is appreciated. Thanks and Merry
Christmas!. Rob
Rob, you would laugh if you saw all my gravers, I bet I have 5
dozen. I keep them on a rotating tree. I sort of use them all but
primarily points (onglette), flats and rounds. The bare minimum
would be points and flats, like 3 of each, sort of small, medium and
large. I like round handles. Blaine Lewis has a great graver
sharpening video available online that you should watch. I did a
quick search but could not find it. I think it’s in the bench tube
library? You can get away with a bench grinder to sharpen, no need
to buy a hone at first. I will see where the thread goes before I
bore with paragraphs of details about how to use a graver.
Merry Christmas!
Mark
A friend just send me this cool link showing a talented
engraver/setter at work. You may enjoy watching the graver work?
Why don’t you go to my “BenchTube” video on how to Bright-Cut inside
a Full-Bezel wall. All I use is a Onglette #2 for that demonstration,
my graver is shaped to cut on its side. Hence, a fantastic & a very
bright finish on the inside cutting surface!