Home-made gravers

I made my own gravers from 1/16” X 12” drill rods and 3/32”X 12” hollow brass tubes. I cut the drill rod in 2” sections and the brass tubes in 1” sections. The drill rod was so hard that I had to take them to a machine shop to have them cut in 2” sections. I have about $4.00 in each graver and they seem to work great.
I used “super-glue” to attach the square brass tube to the drill blanks. Now, I can index them the same in my sharpening jigs. The ones pictured are a knife-edge and a 120 degree graver. Below is the specs on the drill rod.
Sorry about the bad pictures.

Ultra-Micrograin Carbide
•Hardness: 92.5 Ra
•Strength: 650,000 psi
•Cobalt Content: 12%
•Avg. Grain Size: .4 micron

john baraclaugh posted just such an article quite some time ago. his were for i/16" drill stock. he soldered his. i made quit a few of these, and they worked rather well.your idea of the super glue-- will the glue lose it's grip under all that impact ? curious to know.

Gary,

That is great glad there working out for you, I cut mine with the power hone, since there so thin, I just place them up against the edge as it spins and make a slight cut, then just snap them in half, I see your using a lindsay sharpening system, if the pieces get to small to use the template dont throw them away, you can always use them with a dual angle sharpening system in the future, or ill take them when you dont want them.

PS the blanks are 1/16 in size not 1/8 at least the ones I use.

Monk I use jb weld to hold mine in place I've read that some use a filler rod in the brass tube. But I just use the carbide piece itself the price is great so the loss is not much in cost. If my jb weld overfows I just use the power hone to square it out before using the template.

dlilazteca said:

Gary,

That is great glad there working out for you, I cut mine with the power hone, since there so thin, I just place them up against the edge as it spins and make a slight cut, then just snap them in half, I see your using a lindsay sharpening system, if the pieces get to small to use the template dont throw them away, you can always use them with a dual angle sharpening system in the future, or ill take them when you dont want them.

PS the blanks are 1/16 in size not 1/8 at least the ones I use.

Monk I use jb weld to hold mine in place I've read that some use a filler rod in the brass tube. But I just use the carbide piece itself the price is great so the loss is not much in cost. If my jb weld overfows I just use the power hone to square it out before using the template.

Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing out my mistake on the size. I changed it in the original post. Also, thanks for giving me this tip on making these gravers!