so small and just as hard

[Mario Sarto]

While trying to engrave this little gear-wheel i had to resharpen the c-max a dozen times.
I think about if it was the first and the last

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Mario, it looks like a hard gear- wheel. Did you try a different face angle like 55° or 60° ?
Sometimes that can help. Another thing I learned using the C-max is that it needs to be highly polished, both face and heel, on soft steel that is not that important, but every small scratch on the cutting edge can cause breaking the point.
Of course, to hard is to hard.

arnaud

 

[Mario Sarto]

Hello Arnaud, i started with a face angled 55 and ended with 65 with a 15 degree heel, highly polished, too.
On the first cut i did, i wanted to pop out the chip as usual - upps, the complete underpart was gone and i lost about two and a half millimeter of the graver (i think it was my absence of practice with this kind of material).
But it is ok - one good lesson more for me

 

[fegarex]

Mario,
I found it important to put a "micro radius" on the very point of the heel/tip. This increases the strength a lot. For general cutting the radius can be be more than a fine shading point and the cut will still look like a V but you are removing the ultra fine and sharp point of the graver that is the first thing to break. When it does break, it usually takes a bit of tool with it.
Rex

 

[Mario Sarto]

Thank you Rex! That sounds good. Have to try that in the evening.

 

[monk]

mario: you have to quit doing stuff like that. soon, you will be talking to yourself ! like the rest of us !