Question: Begining - Chisel/Pneumatic v Push Graver Geometry

Crossbolt

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Jun 22, 2016
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Hello,
I've been lurking for a little bit and pondering engraving for several months.
I recently completed the 2 week engraving course at Lassen Community College in Susanville, California (recommended) which is focused on chisel and hammer style engraving. Mostly what I've learned is how much I need to learn :). However, I satisfied myself that I have some ability in the field and enjoy it so I intend to keep in practice.

I prefer to use one hand to rotate a ball vise while cutting, particularly English scroll. However, since I was born with the handicap of missing a third hand, that leaves only one hand to engrave with ruling out chisel and hammer. I'm most interested in English styles of engraving and I find I'm predisposed toward push engraving anyway. My financial servants and creditors suggest I should postpone purchasing a pneumatic tool for now (I'm leaning to one of the Lindsay units) and regardless some form of power hone will come first. So for the meantime that leaves me focusing on how to best practice using push engraving. Along those lines I've been browsing threads and "the internets" on graver geometry for manual / push gravers.

My understanding is that gravers for push engraving need a different geometry from chisel/pneumatic gravers. In particular I understand the heel needs to be significantly longer. Is that correct? Apart from that is it reasonable to take a given graver geometry, specifically in my case one of the Lindsay templates, and modify it with longer heels to get a better graver for push engraving? I'd like to get some input before I spend a lot of time manually sharpening something that will not be the best tool for the job - I've got enough learning challenges without handicapping myself further :)
Thanks for any input.
Jeremy
 

Dave London

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Sam has a video on push engraving useing a spritzer. Steve Lindsay has a template for that shape developed by Mike Dubber. Good luck
 

Barry Lee Hands

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Hi Jeremy,
I spent a couple of years push graving professionally eight hours a day in a factory, before moving on to hammer and chisel, self employment and pnumatics.
There is a school of thought out there that push gravers require a longer heel, i believe that impression is created by the fact that most people using pushgravers sharpen by hand, which makes for a longer radiused heel on average.
It is my opinion that traditional american hammer and chisel engravers used a higher , shorter, sharper heel, to give the chisel a lot of lift, to engrave odd shaped parts such as single action frames- this is the cause of the progression marks you see on american scroll.
Amount of heel can always be adjusted, however you are sharpening.
I believe the impression many have that modern tools should have less heel is caused by the lack of clearance under a scope compared to bare eyes, glasses, or a visor.
This causes people to use less heel, so they can cut " flatter"
I hope this helps.
 
Last edited:

monk

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virtually all geometries for all types of cutting on all types of material on all manner of gravers, is available for you.begin your journey using the search bar and a looseleaf. good luck to you.
 

Sam

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Back in the day when I was hammer & chiseling I used hand gravers for shading. They had similar heels to my chisels except at a much lower lift (probably 10° or so). For cutting fine shade lines this worked ok in a lot of metals.

For doing any kind of extensive push engraving other than fine shade lines I have always found a longer heel offers far more control over a shorter one. So try 'em both and see how they work for you. If you make one like the one in my video, it glides through the metal beautifully. I've never seen a short heeled graver that could perform similarly. Not saying there isn't one...just saying I've personally never experienced it.

I should also add that I was never the engraver who sat all day and pushed everything including lettering, monograms, borders on jewelry, etc. For anything other than shading I used hammer & chisel.
 

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