Western bright-cut refresher?

mitch · Dec 3, 2016

Hi all-

i've been doing some lettering lately on various silver articles and it would occasionally be more efficient for me to handle a bit of the bright-cut accent work around it. no major patterns, just a few small scrolls here and there. the client has suggested/requested this and so i thought i'd brush up on that style.

it's been at least 30 yrs since i did any bright cut and after decades of neglect, sold all my liners a few years back while purging my shop of unused tools & eqpt. would any of you more frequent practitioners mind recommending a couple liner sizes and perhaps share the current best thoughts on shaping & sharpening flats, etc.?

thanks in advance! :tiphat:

diandwill · Dec 3, 2016

I don't have the gravers here with me (at home), but Diane Scalese has a great DVD set that would show, and answer, all the questions. I'm sure it's available from both FEGA and GRS.

Brian Marshall · Dec 3, 2016

If you are not in a big hurry - PM your address and I will loan you a set off the currently empty apprentices bench upstairs.

Use them, copy them and return them... might even have an old demo practice plate around here?

B.

Ummm... just thought of sumthin' - these are hand push gravers, not been adapted to power assist. Still want to look at 'em?

Brian Marshall · Dec 3, 2016

Dunno how you can possibly even consider "purging your shop of unused tools & equipment" at your age?

I am going to HAVE to, but I have been fighting it for at least 5 years now. For me, it's way past time to get it done....

B.

silverchip · Dec 3, 2016

Can I help??

Brian Marshall · Dec 3, 2016

Sure Dave - show Mitch some pitchers of your graver tips...

and that glove you came up with. May change his mind?

B.

I think we need to have a gallery of hand pushed graver injuries? Wish I had an image of the time a graver rolled off the bench and I slammed my knees together to catch it. Went all the way to the bone inside my thigh. (Now you know why graver handles need a flat on one side - so they won't roll)

Roger Bleile · Dec 3, 2016

Mitch,

I find that a little bit of flare cut work is a good way to accent lettering with flourishes.

mitch · Dec 4, 2016

ok, maybe i should have been more specific... i just want to be minimally equipped to do a bit of Western-style bright-cut from time to time. i don't need an instructional video- i already know how as well as i need to. i'm sufficiently familiar with wriggling, basic design, etc., to serve my purposes. i'm just looking for somebody to say "a xx/yy and aa/zz size curved(?) liners sharpened @ xÂ° will cover the basics. and a few wide flats sharpened with xÂ° face & rounded yÂ° heel should do it."

it's just been so long since i did it that i was hoping somebody who does it all the time could refresh my memory on liner sizes, etc. and unless they say different, i'm perfectly happy sticking with the typical 40Â° face and rounded 15Â° heel, all polished to a fair-thee-well.

thanks again! :graver:

Brian Marshall · Dec 4, 2016

Gonna depend a little on the sizes of scrolls... For liners 14-10, 14-12 16-10, 16-12, 18-10, 18-12. ALL of these are bent.

Also, if you are gonna do the finial with something a bit larger maybe 22-10? Cross shading with 30-10 or 32-12

I will have to go find the equivalent numbers that NGraver uses - they use a different numbering system, which I never memorized - but they make the BEST liners out there for power assisted tools. Do you plan to use those or the conventional liners?

Flats - 42 to 45 - again depending on size of scroll. Sharpen those the way you've described.

Wrigglers - for backbone - a narrow bent flat, mine are 37, 38

You can get by with just 5 tools - liner, flat, "V", wriggler & cross shader.

Most of this will depend on who taught you and what part of the country they came from. California & Texas are slightly different styles.

B.

atexascowboy2011 · Dec 4, 2016

Recently I was talking with them about fixing up some liners out of 3/32" stock. They need the measurements/spacing which I am too ignorant to provide.
Maybe Brain can get with them and line them out.

monk · Dec 4, 2016

all my flats-- 45 face-- no heel. or around 15 degrees. my liners, slightly rounded face at 45-- no heels. i do not do anything to the bottom. the front (leading, or cutting edge} is gently rounded. the foto shows the cutting edge and face, looking down on the graver top.

silverchip · Dec 4, 2016

Minimal Bright cutting tool set(mine).

20161204_101422bright cittint tool set.jpg

My flat graver angles are 30* face and 25* short rounded heel.

Sam · Dec 4, 2016

If they hung me for being a western brightcut engraver they'd be hanging an innocent man, but here are my gravers with which I can execute some exceptionally mediocre western work. Diane Scalese makes the most elegant, perfect, flawless brightcuts I'ever seen and I'm nowhere close. Anyway, the face of my bent 18/10 liner is radiused as you can see, and the #45 flat is 45 face and 15-20 radius heel. I hope this helps.

mitch · Dec 5, 2016

thanks to all. that'll be enough to get me in trouble!

Western bright-cut refresher?

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