I bought some plates from a sheet metal shop and some from GRS. Believe me, there is a difference. The GRS plates cut much smoother. Cheap stuff is never very good IMHO. I don't work for GRS either.
Some of the best engravers in the world don't use any heal at all. But I know this for sure. You can't cut a small curve with a long heal but you can cut any line with a short one. Most of the heels on my gravers are neatly imperceptible. They are rarely longer than .015 and mostly shorter.
In the last year I have lost 3 things in the shop. I have cleaned and sterilized the shop from top to bottom at least 4 times and they are nowhere to be found. One of them was pretty large and I don't even drink.
In the photo below, How do you think the breach was formed? Was this a silver soldered on overlay and then sculped or was it sculpted down from the barrel forging without an overlay? I would like some feedback from Sam Alfano, Mike Dubber or Sam welch as well as others please.