DJ Glaser at GRS and he was telling me of a graver sharpening experience of Alexandre Sidorov of Belgium. Alexandre was having difficulty keeping gravers from breaking when diamond setting a really tough stainless steel watch case. If you've ever seen Alexandre's gravers, they are polished beyond perfection.
After continued breaking of the graver Alexandre did something contrary to his mirror polishing of the graver's surfaces and resharpened with a coarse "satin finish" condition as he refers to it, and this extended the graver's life substantially.
I've been working on a stainless steel Rolex back which is also really tough steel. About 5 minutes into the job my perfectly polished C-Max EG120° graver broke. I then resharpened the face and heel on a 600 grit lap and left it at that. I continued engraving the rest of the case back without having to resharpen. I was very surprised.
Alexandre suggests stopping at 1200. My worn 600 seemed to work pretty well.
I can't explain why this worked, nor can DJ or Alexandre. Alexandre swears this satin finish extends graver life, and based on my one experience I have to agree.
Anyone else ever notice this?
After continued breaking of the graver Alexandre did something contrary to his mirror polishing of the graver's surfaces and resharpened with a coarse "satin finish" condition as he refers to it, and this extended the graver's life substantially.
I've been working on a stainless steel Rolex back which is also really tough steel. About 5 minutes into the job my perfectly polished C-Max EG120° graver broke. I then resharpened the face and heel on a 600 grit lap and left it at that. I continued engraving the rest of the case back without having to resharpen. I was very surprised.
Alexandre suggests stopping at 1200. My worn 600 seemed to work pretty well.
I can't explain why this worked, nor can DJ or Alexandre. Alexandre swears this satin finish extends graver life, and based on my one experience I have to agree.
Anyone else ever notice this?