Critique Request Is My 120 Sharpened Correctly?

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Attached are a few photos of my 120 degree under the view of my scope at 7X magnification. Would love to hear input on heel length or general shape. I sharpen the main face to 50 degrees and 5 degree taper on the sides. The heel doesn't have a measured angle, just what i thought would be approximately 15 degrees. I always test the sharpness on my thumbnail before using it.
 

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monk

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short answer-- yes. maybe a better geometry--- depending upon what/how you intend to cut. the question leads me to believe you're a relative newbie. learning a bunch of different geometries, at first, is not neded. as a newb, the feel of each wil likely confuse you. the so called" feel" is very important. it is the feel of the graver in your wrist that will determine how you hold the tool. ultimately how it will cut. the 120 you have done should serve you well. get the hang of that one first, then experiment. for most newbs, a 90 is way easier to control than your 120. heel length, generally very short for tight curves, and longer ok for straight lines. a long heel on a tight curve== the outboard side of the cut will be rough and a bit gimpy lookin. experiment. in this business, one size/way does not fit all.
 
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jerrywh

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You need to polish that thing up some. I put my heals on with a ceramic. If you think about it, a rough graver cannot be sharp. Where two rough edges meat there is a rough edge. No good.
 

Sam

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Looks perfect to me size wise. If the lift works for you then it's good to go. I've engraved a million miles of lines with a graver that looks exactly like yours. My only suggestion would be to relieve some of the metal on the top to reduce the size of the face. This has nothing to do with cutting performance, but will make resharpening substantially faster.

I no longer polish heels on my gravers unless I'm brightcutting precious metals. I sharpen to 1200 grit on a diamond lap (without power) and leave it at that.
 

jerrywh

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1200 grit is pretty smooth. That is about as sharp as gravers were for centuries. I'm not sure when they came out with Ceramic wheels. The main reason I use a ceramic to do heals is they cut slower and I don't tend to over do the heal or make it too long on real small gravers.
On the hand push gravers I think they cut easier when smoother.
 

stick

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It looks ok to me. The top of graver can be ground down a bit to reduce the face a little like Sam said, but that's your choice.
I can suggest something.. If you sharpen the heels by feel, why not place it flat on the sharpening media (bottom relief flat on stone) lift to angle you like and sweep across the stone. That way you can get parallel heels on both sides. I am a newbie and i sharpen everything with templates except the heels. Somehow i get this right.. Maybe beginner luck or something, but my gravers are cutting nice. I also polish to 1200, sometimes to 3000 but i have experimented also with just 600grit and it's also ok if i will put paint in the cuts later. This is just my 2 cents as a newbie. The nice thing is you have a microscope.. pretty soon you will figure what works for you. Good luck and enjoy experimenting!
 

mitch

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like Sam, i've cut miles with a graver that looks much the same as yours. i'm a relatively new convert to a 120, having used a 90 almost exclusively for the first 33+ yrs of my career. but for working in steel, i very rarely sharpen with anything finer than a well-used 600 grit powerhone wheel. points tend not to last all that long cutting steel and while a more polished point will last longer (fewer potential incipient fracture fissures) i don't find it's enough to be worth the time & trouble.
 

John B.

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Nejc,
Add a few jabs of your newly sharpened graver into the end grain of a piece of maple wood.
It tends to put a minor polish on the heels and also eliminates any " wire edge."
Your cuts will still hold ink or paint but your tip will last longer.
Give it a try, nothing to loose.
 
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Thank you everyone for all the insight, I've been messing around on steel plates these last couple of days and im finally starting to be able to cut even straight lines. Depth is tricky and im noticing how its easy to drop my wrist as i move along the metal but I've begun to correct that. Also, I plan on using rustoleum on most of my pieces so I feel I really dont need to sharpen past 1600. I will post some practice work in a few days and hopefully can get more insight on that end of things. Again, thank you everyone for the help.
 

John B.

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Nejc and others, as I posted above,
I have a 1X2x4 inch long piece of maple wood on my bench that I use to jab the newly sharpened gravers into
Jab them into the end grain to remove the "wire edge."
I keep one end grain of the maple plain and the other end I soak in the lube of my choice.
If i want to lube, de-edge and polish the newly sharpened graver I can kill three birds with one stone.
 

stick

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Nejc and others, as I posted above,
I have a 1X2x4 inch long piece of maple wood on my bench that I use to jab the newly sharpened gravers into
Jab them into the end grain to remove the "wire edge."
I keep one end grain of the maple plain and the other end I soak in the lube of my choice.
If i want to lube, de-edge and polish the newly sharpened graver I can kill three birds with one stone.

Yes John, thank you. I do that from time to time, but sometimes i am in the zone and forget to do this. Your post has reminded me that this simple and easy step is worth doing regularly.
 

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