tool sharpening / face polish

KSnyder

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Nov 13, 2006
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Fellow chipcutters,
Just got to thinkin' , how important is it to polish the face of the graver/chisel? Since the tools actually use the edge for the cutting is it a waste of time getting a high polish on the face? I use hard leather & simichrome polish for the heels and the face as well for a final polish. I usually spend the most time checking the heels for angle etc., not so much on the face. When bright cutting , I polish everything.
I dont use power hone, just a series of stones, but seems the process should be the same.
thanks,
Kent
 

pilkguns

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It depends on what you are trying to achieve with your cuts. If you are doing a bright cut, with lots of flares for to reflect light, then of course you need to polish you heels. I'ts the same ole GIGO syndrome (Garbage In Garbage Out). Whatever scratches you have present on the bottom of the heels, will appear on the bottom of your cut. If you really want to make a bright cut shine, then you also need to polish the face or otherwise the tiny scratches in the face are trasmitted to the heel cut where they intersect with your polished heel. Polishing the face makes the scratches go away and more less gives you a more perfect straight line between you face and your heel, which is the part of the graver that is really making the cut. Any scratches there are where you are going to see them in yuor bright cut.

Conversely if you are doing normal scroll, say gun or knifework, then you don't want any polish on the heels, or the face, as the rougher texture makes a darker looker cut in contrast to the polished surface.
 

Sam

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Kent: As Scott said, brightcutting is usually reserved for jewelry and western engraving. Gun and knife engravers want something that's clean and bright but not the mirror-like reflectivity desired for jewelry or western. For gun or knife work, I find that the ceramic lap is sufficient for final finish. For jewelry or western, I polish my gravers with 3M PSA disks which produce the most amazing and flawless polish I've ever seen. Here's the info on that if you're interested. / ~Sam
 

jimzim75

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Hi,
I mostly do Jewellery engraving. Most of my work is with a 120 degree.
I use carbides about 60 percent of the time. I will grind a long face of both
the cutting surface just to clean them up . There might be spurs in the
rough blank of a carbide. Drag marks can also be cause by these.

I grind the face to 49% then tip the jig forward to polish just the cutting
edge at 50%. This only .25mm and not the whole face. Depending on what
I'm doing, I will put a rounded heal that start at 05% and goes to
about 18% and very minimal. About .1mm or less. Round heals
do not produce secondary cutting as much, in my thinking.

If it's a 90%, I increase the cutting angle from 45% to 50% because this produces
a thinner heal uniformly along the cutting edge. It is still a 90% angle.
This is not necessary on a 120% graver, you can leave it at 30%.

I strop the final blade of leather with 1/4 micron diamond.

% = Degrees (My computer doesn't have a degree zero)

Jim
 
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KSnyder

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Toledo, Ohio
thanks guys, guess I'll keep polishing the face, is the diamond spray work similar to the lap? Could i use the spray on a hard piece of leather?
Kent
 

jimzim75

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Hi,
The lap and leather do two different types of cutting. A ceramic lap is
rigid and puts a facet on your graver. The leather is radiusing and tends
to only remove metal at the edge.
Jim
 
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Sam

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Speaking of leather, I have found that a fresh piece of tooling leather (non-oiled or finished leather) treated with diamond spray works MUCH better than an old worn piece that's seen lots of graver polishing. Knowing this, when I use a piece of leather for polishing, I gradually work my way arcoss the leather and use only a fresh surface each time. As the leather darkens with polishing, I keep moving until I use up the entire piece, then into the trash can it goes and I start with another fresh piece treated with diamond spray.
 

DanM

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Nov 15, 2006
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Minnesota
Hi,




% = Degrees (My computer doesn't have a degree zero)

Jim

Everyone has the degree sign on their computers if they are using Windows.you just need to press and hold the ALT key,type 0176 and release the ALT key. 99° Dan
 

Magnus Jensen

Member
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Nov 10, 2006
Messages
59
Location
Skene Sweden
Don´t throw them in the trash.

Yes Sam is right, diamond-spray works best on the fresh skin-side of the leather.And I think its good for carbide and HHS steel gravers, but I don´t like it when it comes to carbon gravers.
What I do is that I use the suede side with "ruby shine" and here comes the suede side to use since it helps keeping the powder on the leather piece.
One thing I´ve tryed with good result on HHS is fiber cloths normally used for platinum, and going from coarse to fine grit it´s possible to get a couple of centimeters shiny side on the onglette or for example the flat one.
Since I am a setter and don´t use any heal on some of my gravers it´s nice to have a bigger piece of the graver shiny due to more resharpening during work.

Magnus
 
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