complaining- price wow

papart1

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Hay fellow engraver's I get my carbides from a place called Centennial Carbides in I and believe 4 grades, almost any length, diameter with shipping, is VERY reasonable, try them........ I think you'll like them.
 

Brian Marshall

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It's kinda amusing what folks on here choose to save money on...

Buying diamond polishing grit off ebay is a great idea, but buying generic (drill rod) graver blanks are not?


I guess on my dad's side there was some Scotch blood. I buy both - if they do the same job for a quarter of the retail price.


Brian
 

Sam

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It's kinda amusing what folks on here choose to save money on...

Buying diamond polishing grit off ebay is a great idea, but buying generic (drill rod) graver blanks are not?


I guess on my dad's side there was some Scotch blood. I buy both - if they do the same job for a quarter of the retail price.


Brian


Most of us have made gravers from tool steel or carbide blanks we've gotten from suppliers that aren't engraving tool suppliers. My only concern is the beginner who gets bad advice or buys the wrong thing and then doesn't understand why it's failing. Is it the geometry, the sharpening, graver control? I've seen this play out many times with students. So I advise beginners to use "store bought" gravers until they have enough experience with engraving and sharpening to understand what's going on.
 

jerrywh

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I have never found anything better than Cmax from GRS for cutting hard metal. Believe it or not I do a lot of weatherbys and cutting those barrels is rough on gravers. I always have some CMAX in stock for that stuff as well as some others. Anything that good is well worth the money to me. But if you don't sharpen them right nothing will stand up to that.
 

Southern Custom

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Tira mentioned the HSS grace we'd she carries as being comparable and having used just about everything I can confirm that they are some tough gravers.
Andrew makes a good point. A beginner only needs a few so cost shouldn't be an issue. As a professional, the return on that $15 investment is so high that I have no problem paying for decent steel.
 

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