Nathan Ott
Member
I've been a practicing goldsmith/stone setter for a little over 8 years. I started fresh out high school, apprenticing with an old family friend a (fortunatly for me) master Dutch goldsmith.
Biography aside, stone setting has always been one my passions, followed more recently by engraving. Since there seem to be many other goldsmith/stone-setter/engraver hybrids around here I thought someone might be able to help me with a little something.
I recently bought a GRS powerhone with a dual angle sharpening fixture. It's a life saver for acuratly preparing my gravers for scroll work or jewelery engraving. Now maybe I'm making this too complicated, but I've been having a hard time using it to sharpen my gravers for stone setting. It seems like the graver drags against the diamond wheel too much if I set the fixture at a 0 degree angle and the results I've got with the few old flat gravers I've tried weren't as nice as the results I'm getting on my healed squares and 120s.
I think part of the problem is the flat graver I have are grobet quick change gravers, which have a slight bevel to them, which cause the wheel to grind into the top part of the side first. I've tried to correct for this but it seems like more trouble than its worth. Would it be easier for me to shape the tool from a blank? Does someone else have a useful suggestion? Or am I being too lazy?
I'd go back to sharpening by hand but this silly tool (like all GRS equipment...) has me spoiled for life.
Biography aside, stone setting has always been one my passions, followed more recently by engraving. Since there seem to be many other goldsmith/stone-setter/engraver hybrids around here I thought someone might be able to help me with a little something.
I recently bought a GRS powerhone with a dual angle sharpening fixture. It's a life saver for acuratly preparing my gravers for scroll work or jewelery engraving. Now maybe I'm making this too complicated, but I've been having a hard time using it to sharpen my gravers for stone setting. It seems like the graver drags against the diamond wheel too much if I set the fixture at a 0 degree angle and the results I've got with the few old flat gravers I've tried weren't as nice as the results I'm getting on my healed squares and 120s.
I think part of the problem is the flat graver I have are grobet quick change gravers, which have a slight bevel to them, which cause the wheel to grind into the top part of the side first. I've tried to correct for this but it seems like more trouble than its worth. Would it be easier for me to shape the tool from a blank? Does someone else have a useful suggestion? Or am I being too lazy?
I'd go back to sharpening by hand but this silly tool (like all GRS equipment...) has me spoiled for life.