Question: Starting Tools

Kuro

New Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
4
I wanted opinions on what are good tools to start off with. I cant get any locally so I wanted to know if anyone knows about a good place to look for tools. I mainly just want the engraving tools i have a lot of the other stuff i need.
 

diandwill

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Aug 10, 2008
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Eastern, Washington State
You don't say whether you intend to push, hammer & chisel or air assisted. For push engravers and handles Rio Grande is pretty good, for air assist the three choices are GRS (Glendo Corp), Steve Lindsay's units and the EnStat by DeCamillis. All are good, different people like different units, but they all are pricey! The first thing you need is to get a sharpening fixture. You have to be able to get consistent sharpness, and be able to repeat it. Probably the best less expensive way is Lindsay's sharpening jigs. I use GRS tools and have the quick change handpiece, so use their power hone and dual angle fixture. I also have Tom White's variable speed hone, which allows quick shaping and sharpening of Carbide gravers.
The cheapest way to start, and not be too frustrated is with push engraving and Lindsay's jigs for sharpening. If you actually become serious about engraving, take a course, it will save hours, weeks, months and/or years of frustration.
 

Kuro

New Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
4
Thanks for the help, I dont really know what tools i want to start off with so im gonna be looking through a couple of the sites. I also want to get serious about this but Hawaii lacks any engraving classes. Do you know any good online classes?
 

monk

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chris de camillis offers on-line courses for engraving. get yourself a few flats, a couple rounds, and maybe 2 or 3 square gravers. in addition to grs and rio-grande, gesswein in new york has a good selection of hss "red tang" gravers. if you can, get different sizes. you'll find difficulty trying to work with just one graver size/shape. eventually you'll end up with too many to count.
 
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