selecting and getting graver blanks

I am using and air engraver GRS GRAVERMACH with a 901 hand piece and QC holders with a dozen or so of traditional gravers.

I have decided that i need to start with 90, 120 or other round and square gravers.

I am almost sure that my QC holders have a 3.5mm hole, so i am assumingthat 3/32(2.35mm) and 1/8 ( 3mm) graver blanks in square or round will work to make 90 and 120 gravers with heals right?

I have coming a powerhone with diamonds.

and suggest or input to get correct blanks and source would be helpful

thanks


btw..im totally new so the traditional gravers are digging in..

you can get em right from grs

Up to 3/32 square and up to 1/8 round should fit in your QC collets.

You stated the traditional gravers are digging in... What gravers do you have? Have you sharpened the gravers? Put a heel on them?

Did you purchase a sharpening fixture as part of the power hone package?

You may have already found some of the resources available through this site. In the banner bar a bit down from the top of the page is a button that will take you to iGraver Tutorials. There are instructions and links to graver forming and sharpening -- great information and essential for reducing the frustration of beginning engravers. Tool sharpening may well be the most important skill that you develop at this time.

Good Luck!

Use the site search at the top of the page to find out just about anything a beginning engraver would need to know. This site that Sam Alfano has put together for us is a treasure trove of info all it takes is just a little bit of site surfing. There are several places that you can order your gravers from. There are several sharpening templates and sharpening jigs and fixtures available that help you make perfectly sharpened gravers every time. With that being said it is still a good idea to learn how to hand sharpen the gravers, it will come in handy in the future especially when you need to make special gravers for certain applications that conventional gravers don't work on. If your gravers are digging in then it probably means that they need a "heel" added to them. Sam has a great video on how to sharpen gravers and he also has a book on that same subject. Any of Sam's books are worth their weight in gold and any videos of his or advice he gives is world-class and worth looking at and listening to. Take a little bit of your time and go through this site and especially the tips archive section, read every post in the tips archive. Every question that you have has been asked and addressed several times, it's just a matter of finding the post on here. Good luck and don't get discouraged, learning this takes time and patience.

with the sharpening systems available, one can almost create a silk purse from a hogs' ear. with the grs, you can grind just about any geometry that you woulld want or need. the lindsay system allows many useful combinations. each one, however, requires a separate template.

I would suggest Sam's Sharpening Video for starters. I have had the DVD since it came out. I think it is in his downloadable format now?