Crossbolt
Elite Cafe Member
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
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