roll marks

dclevinger

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This is nothing fancy but it is making for some good fill in work. A lot of Colt 1911 slides have very uneven roll marks. When a custom builder polishes the slide, the marks can get really light and portions can disappear completely. I ground a graver to the shape and width of the original roll marks so it still looks proper once I'm finished. Here is my most recent slide.
 

mitch

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nice job! i've done a ton of that sort of thing over the last 35+ yrs.
 

FANCYGUN

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Looks good David I usually like to use an onglette with a slightly rounded tip to do that What are you using
Maybe see you in Denver show in a few weeks bring Darcy's cake and say HI for me
 

dclevinger

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Thanks Marty. I am using one of John B's little gravers ground to a 90 with a slight radius. I was thinking about trying one of the c-max onglettes.

I am planning to stop by the show for a bit. I will shoot you an email later in the week. Darc says hello as well.
 

John B.

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Hi David, Your cutting looks clean as always.
My gunsmith drove me crazy re-cutting lettering for his restitution jobs so I finally taught him how to do it himself.
I still get top priority in his shop.
Grind one of my small gravers into a parallel sided onglette with just a slightly rounded point like Marty says. Cuts like a breeze.
Also a good graver to cut fine lines for gold inlaid borders.
Best to you and the family.
 

FANCYGUN

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OK John Now you have got me What is a parellel sided onglette? Onglettes have a curved taper to them and i am rounding my tips as I do my heel The sides are not parallel Now are you talking about a rounded flat graver or even a round graver that has almost parallel sides? :thinking::thinking:
 

John B.

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You're correct Marty. I just grind a 1/16 inch round graver to have two parallel sides like a tiny parallel sided flat with a rounded bottom.
Cut the face to your favorite angle.Then holding it by hand and lifted about 15 degrees I give the bottom a wiping motion on a 600 lap.
This creates an ongelette type point. I then rotate the point to slightly round it off. The graver winds up a cross between ongelette and a round at the working end. Works great for re-cutting rolled lettering or for cutting fine line inlay borders.
Wish I had a dollar for each of the tens of thousands roll letters I have re-cut using this type graver, I'd be rich.
David may remember these gravers, we made them in class.
 
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FANCYGUN

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Thats what i thought you were talking about John
The nice thing about parallel sides are the eye only notices the width and not the depth of the recut so the trick is try and have a graver that matches the width of the letters you are recutting Great for gold lines also as it makes it easier to keep the illusion of a constant width line
 

diandwill

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Do you put a heel on the parallel sided onglette? I have some lettering to cut inside a gold bracelet, before it is bent. They want block, upper and lower case, and that sounds like the graver I want to use.
 

John B.

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Do you put a heel on the parallel sided onglette? I have some lettering to cut inside a gold bracelet, before it is bent. They want block, upper and lower case, and that sounds like the graver I want to use.

I don't know if you were asking me but here is my MO.
I put a heel and an onglette shape on the graver by hand by holding it at about 15 degrees and rotating it from side to side with a wiping motion on a 600 wheel. I then slightly round just the point to better conform to the bottom shape of the rolled in lettering.
The round point having just the narrow ongelette cross section behind it allows it to cut tight radius with no side wash.
You can also do this on a standard ongelette if you are comfortable controlling the cutting depth and width.
 
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diandwill

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I don't know if you were asking me but here is my MO.
I put a heel and an onglette shape on the graver by hand by holding it at about 15 degrees and rotating it from side to side with a wiping motion on a 600 wheel. I then slightly round just the point to better conform to the bottom shape of the rolled in lettering.
The round point having with the narrow ongelette cross section behind it allows it to cut tight radius with no side wash.
You can also do this on a standard ongelette if you are comfortable controlling the cutting depth and width.

Thank you. I intend to try that. I was given a heavy 14K gold blank to engrave a verse from Proverbs. The block style is my least favorite, but its what they want.
 

FANCYGUN

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That is exactly how I do my heels also John. It really is quite simple once you get the feel for it. I use onglettes of various widths for this including some oldies i just ground out of drill rod way back when. The onglette actually cuts very smoothly like John mentioned.
 

diandwill

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This is what I ended up cutting. I didn't have the gravers I needed, so modified a round to an onglette point and cut the letters, then went back over them with a 52 round.

I intend to get the right gravers, modify them for future use and save them for cutting block etc.

 

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