Graver sharpening on the KMG

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

Joined
Aug 6, 2007
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I have been playing with engraving, and also making my own gravers and attempting to freehand grind in the angles, results are spotty and primitive. I realise the problems with this are lack of consistency, and things not being quite right. SO I emailed some folks about angles and one of the teachers from the engraving class I took at Peter's Valley messaged me about basic angles. I dont have any of the fancy angle holders and jigs and thought how I might do it without them. I have had great success with grinding specific angles using an angle fixture and adjusting the platen angle, and figured why not try it with this? My angles were 50 degree main bevel and a 15 degree heel, I used a V block holder for the 50 degree, then I set it at 15 degrees, and using the protractor marked two lines at 15 degrees angled away from the platen. only tried them a little bit but seems like it worked quite good! I ground 6 all the same so I would have consistent gravers to practice with, just need a holder for them now.

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Cool, Sam. I've been trying my hand at engraving in steel, too. Made a few gravers and freehand sharpened them, too. Results spotty here, as well. I've got some gravers, chinese white, die sinking chisels, etc. on the way from Gesswein now. I just finished my bowling ball vise the other week, it came out sweet. My focus for consistent angles in graver sharpening right now consists of making a platform to use my crocker style angle graver holder with a 9" disc grinder. I'll post if I have any success.

I'd like to see some of your engraving when you get pics, I'll need to practice more to have anything post-worthy...
 
I have the crocker also, but cannot figure out how to set it up (nor fit 1/4" square or 1/2" round in it) haha. I think a disc grinder is a good idea! The diamond disc sharpening stuff is very expensive. Have you seen the Lindsay graver jigs? they look like the cat's meow and are similar to the crocker but more idiot proof. My engravings so far are OK, nothing to write home about, but I look forward to eliminating the big variable which is angles and focusing on using them instead.
 
I have seen those, as well as the GRS sharpening stuff that's real slick. Spendy items! I'd love to have a Graver mach or Lindsay airgraver one day.
 
Very cool stuff. I have put the engraving on a back shelf for a little while but it is fun. I bought the templates from Lyndsey and got some of the hss bits from MSC. I took the old craftsman 2x42 and took everything off of it including the 2x42 portion so its just the disk grinder. Flipped it on end and built a housing for it out of wood. I made it so the housing sits 1/2 inch below the disk like the grinder sharpener that they sell just for sharpening gravers. It works pretty good just gotta be careful because it spins pretty fast. Then I take them to the diamond hone to polish the facets up.

Salem would be interested to see how you put together your vise.

EDIT here is a pic of the contraption

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Yeah I sure did once I learned how to use them. I dont know a whole lot about engraving and have alot to learn. I also bought the book engraving historic firearms by John Schippers which I wish I had done first when I was originally trying to teach myself. Its like a all in one book on how to do engraving focusing alot on the hammer and chisel method.
The forum that I think it is lyndsey setup is pretty cool as well, have not been over there in a while but tons of info there. Most of the guys use the air graver things but there are alot of guys that give pointers on the old school hammer method. Alot of pro quality engraver guys frequent the forum as well.
 
Quint, thanks for the pic there. That looks similar to my idea with the disc grinder, just kind of a copy of the GRS diamond sharpener. I'm building a disc grinder soon, and I'll probably make it flippable so I can sharpen gravers on it in a flat plane like yours, there.

I really need to take pics of some of my new aquisitions and projects, my big bandsaw, my lathe, my power hacksaw, some mods to my big drill press, my big coal forge, my sword quench tube and my bowling ball vise. Sort of an omnibus thread of my new cool stuff. It will probably be in there. My bday is coming up, getting a new camera then, so I'll probably wait until I can get those good crisp pics for you all.

Oh, a question: have you read or do you own James Meek's book? I have it, do you think the book you mentioned has a lot of additional info about hammer/chisel work? Might have to pick it up as well.
 
I have not gotten James book and I have not read it so couldnt tell ya. I only had money for one book at the time considering the prices and the one I happened to get was just coming out and was highly suggested by alot of people (prob some marketing and some good advise). Regardless I think Schippers book is great. Its been a little while since I read thru it but it goes into detail about making your own gravers, practice works from the basic beginner doing repeated lines and such and slowly works up thru scroll work and inlays and such. Basically goes into detail on how he started and progresses thru to how he does his firearms. He does alot of the old school replica work on firearms which lends itself to the hammer and chisel type look.

I need to find time to get back to playing with engraving now that you guys got my interest perked again.
 
Sam,
Those belts are way too coarse for graver sharpening! 400-600 grit or finer is all you need.
Look into the "N Graver" Google it. Flex-shaft powered impact engraver. Much cheaper than Lindsey or GRS.
 
If you are serious about engraving, just getting a "sharp" edge on a belt grinder or disc sander won't do. Speed ( which creates heat) is the enemy of a good edge, and coarse grits make for rough edges.

The best systems use solid discs that can be run at slow speed. Polishing on a truly flat ceramic lap with diamond paste gets a perfect smooth edge.
If you don't want the expense of these, make a 6" disc sander from a DC motor or other VS unit ( it can be very low HP). True up an aluminum or steel disc. Use the stick on discs and lapping sheets available to sharpen the gravers.
For precision, a mast and quill setup that allows precise adjustment is best, but you can do pretty well by eye if the graver is firmly held in some sort of jig. What the dials and gauges offer is repeatability in resharpening.

A Crocker and a couple good bench stones will also do a good job with practice. Slow and even pressure are the watch words in all graver sharpening.

Whatever method you use, remember to put the tiny secondary bevel on. This is almost always applied with the equipment turned off, and just moving the graver across the abrasive slowly for a second or two. The micro-bevel secondary makes the edge last much longer, and helps control the graver from digging in too much ( and thus breaking the edge off).
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Sam,
Those belts are way too coarse for graver sharpening! 400-600 grit or finer is all you need.
Look into the "N Graver" Google it. Flex-shaft powered impact engraver. Much cheaper than Lindsey or GRS.
Click to expand...

Bill thanks. I roughed them out on that 36, then took em all the way to 1200 I guess maybe the title should have been graver grinding. I am a big fan of Ngraver machine and his other products, I have used one and enjoyed it. I am sticking to hand hammering for now.
 
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