I've been practicing my lettering with a flat graver. What's recommended on my video is a 40 degree face with a 10-20 degree radius heel. The quality of my cuts have been all over the place while learning. When things are going bad I suspect most everything is my problem. This template at least eliminates the inconsistent heel angle problem. I tried a shorter ramp and decided a longer sweep is what I needed and may still need an even longer sweep.
I first used a scrap piece of wood to make the shorter one. I happened to have a piece of aluminum angle and just cut to length, cut one side to the height I needed and glued on a piece of wood.
The wood serves several purposes. It serves as a stop for my template and keeps it set back so the graver doesn't run off the other side. It works great !
The standard Lindsay KNIFE and FLAT combo template used with the 1/4'' shim that comes with his NEGATIVE RELIEF template gives me a stone height of 3/4'' and about a 10-20 degree radius on the graver heel. The aluminum angle is cut at about 17/32'' high.
I don't know if it would be a benefit but I suppose you could put a radius on a V graver. Or, put a sort of step in it and have a flat between the two angles.
Hope this helps someone, it certainly reduced my list of possible problems with my lettering.
I first used a scrap piece of wood to make the shorter one. I happened to have a piece of aluminum angle and just cut to length, cut one side to the height I needed and glued on a piece of wood.
The wood serves several purposes. It serves as a stop for my template and keeps it set back so the graver doesn't run off the other side. It works great !
The standard Lindsay KNIFE and FLAT combo template used with the 1/4'' shim that comes with his NEGATIVE RELIEF template gives me a stone height of 3/4'' and about a 10-20 degree radius on the graver heel. The aluminum angle is cut at about 17/32'' high.
I don't know if it would be a benefit but I suppose you could put a radius on a V graver. Or, put a sort of step in it and have a flat between the two angles.
Hope this helps someone, it certainly reduced my list of possible problems with my lettering.