Dear all who will be buying these gravers…read and understand just
what I must go through to ‘make a set’ for you…:>)
When I am presented with 5 gravers for my clients, that is 3
onglette #2, and 2 onglette #1, I immediately seperate them into 3
sections for their eventual use. So how is this done?
Let me explain now how this little test is conducted. I feel the
"barrel roll" underneath of each #2 graver just for the thickness of
the lozenge (as some folks call this onglette) metal that will
distinguish each from the other…This little exercise is a ‘learned
test’ acquired from may thousands of gravers during this setters
lifetime.
Once the ‘feel test’, has been completed, I now seperate these
onglette # 2’s into again smaller groups. Now I ‘must’ figure out
which graver is for a ‘bead-raiser’ and the other group will before
the “bright-cutting” pile. I will right now make a little cut near
the ‘tang’ to distinguish the two groups while in their grinding
stage. The rough-cutting group of onglette #1’s are simple, they are
already marked on the side of each graver, these I leave alone.
When I reduce the ‘tang’ length, I must be diligent in knowing how
long the user wishes the final length to be at. I will reshape the
tang into a ‘spear’ shape as this tang MUST be then heated up and
burned with a flame to a red-hot colour and immersed into the wooden
handle at your bench, not mine.
When I prepare the bead-raiser, I will normally leave a tad thicker
or a heavier ‘face’ for the beads that will be raised…but when it
comes to my “right-sided” ongette, well that is a ‘different kettle
of fish’. I must now distinguish the right-half of the graver just
for the eventual bright-cutting side. This is one of the most
trickiest grinding processes in this whole skill level. The blade
must not be too thin or even too thick in its final outcome. Many
times I will run to my grinder again and make some fine one or two
cuts. Even repositioning my blade to the grinding wheel, in a way
that there are no protruding shards of metal to catch my/your
fingers.
If you see how this is done. The whole grinding process is fraught
with the need of not burning or softening of the metal, if this is
done. Good bye graver!!!..out of a 10score of intense concentration,
I would call this a near 8 or a 9/10…I can only cut 15 gravers in
any one day! and you folks think that this grinding job of mine is
easy…don’t think so!..:>(
I really hope that this little ‘posting’ enlightened you all in what
transpires at my bench-grinder…
Gerry!