Help, please: Depth versus detail

Roger B

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I presume I am not the only one who is asked to engrave jewellery pieces deeply.

How does one achieve depth with curved lines without having a wide cut? I have tried narrow degree gravers but of course you end up with heel drag, I have also tried undercutting an onglette which works up to a point but the tip becomes very fragile and when it breaks you have to go past the undercut to resharpen. This is something I have been trying to deal with for a while but clearly without success.

Thanks in advance,

Roger
 

Andrew Biggs

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Hi Roger

Try a parallel heel. 90 or 105 (or whatever your preference is) Avoid a 120 as that will start getting very wide the deeper you cut..............This is what I use and naturally cut quite deep on jewellery, watches and just about everything else. You don't need super fancy gravers :)

The other thing when you cut small is your technique. When cutting very small scrolls or curves. Lean your graver to the outside of the curve slightly. And raise the back of the graver as you go around in a tight circle. The tighter the circle becomes, the higher you lift the back of the graver. By lift, I mean lift. It may be that by the time you finish the tight curved cut the graver may be at 30 to 45 degrees..........give it a bit of practice on a piece of scrap and you will see what I mean.

This technique combined with a parallel heel will allow you to cut very small tight work quite deeply without drag.

Cheers
Andrew
 

Roger B

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Thanks Andrew,

I generally use parallel heels almost exclusively and rarely use anything near 120 degrees. In the latter jobs where depth was asked for I used around 95 degrees - maybe I have to accept that this is as deep as these cuts get and not beat myself up about unachievable expectations.

Take care,

Roger
 

Andrew Biggs

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Hi Roger

Yes, depth is in the eye of the beholder. :)

Attached is a gold wedding ring I engraved for a close friend. The main cuts were 120 and the shading 105. I have no idea what the depth is in terms of measurement..........but it was deep.

Put it like this. It's not going to wear out anytime soon, that's for sure. It's a hell of a lot deeper than you see in most jewellers shops with laser engraving.

What you can't see is the other side of the ring where there was more detailed work. The design tells the story of him and his wife with their two children and their close relationship with the sea.

The band is 5mm wide so there was a lot of room to work with.

So maybe you are already cutting as deep as you can feasibly can. :)

Cheers
Andrew
 

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Southern Custom

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Yours is one of the oldest dilemmas in the jewelry shop. I too use a 96deg graver for most of this type work. I keep a variety on the bench to get at odd places as well. Everything from tiny rounds to onglettes. In the end we are bound by physics and geometry and there is limit to what can be done with a graver. It's up to the us to tactfully explain what is and is not achievable to potential customers. Many people just don't know or have seen something done that was cast or designed on CAD and assume that it can be done by hand.
Layne
 

Roger B

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G'day Chris, how are you going?

Thanks. That is virtually what I did with the onglette but I probably was not game enough to cut close enough to the point for fear of breaking the tip and having to start again. You make freehand sharpening look so easy.

Take care,

Roger
 

monk

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thanks chris. i dislike onglettes, but i'll try that-- who knows, perhaps i'll gain some respect for this graver afterall.
 

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