Engraving Tools

[cannonball1]

I dabble at engraving and was wondering where the best place to purchase carbide or HSS graver blanks. It seems like Jewelry supply houses are very expensive and Brownells is out of everything. Would appreciate information where I can purchase some engraving tools and blanks?

 

[Metalshaper]

go on Amazon and look for HSS blanks. They have them in various sizes and lengths. I just got a bunch of 3mm and 6mm square
blanks of such. One was3-4" long n the others were 6" I think??
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KS4C8YR?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_CCAZ9272FHKHG76QBPK2

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan

 

[Phil Coffins]

I forged down the end of a chisel then ground it to form a 90* graver. You probably have done more engraving than I but it works for me.
001 by Oliver Sudden, on Flickr

 

[Metalshaper]

here are some of my Home Grown tooling.. chisels are HSS, from 3 lathe tools and a ground jigsaw blade. Hammer made from
a Bolt the weld shop supervisor at work, threw to me and said"What can you make from that?" so I showed him.. not fancy but works??
the vise has a big bowling ball brother in the shop downstairs.. this one made from a lil aluminum drill press vise, bolts, stainless steel bowl with a dab of concrete and a solid lawn mower tire for a base...

Poor men have poor ways??

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan

 

[Robby]

These are concrete nails I forged out and mounted into carriage bolts. Kinda crude but they work.
Robby

 

[cannonball1]

with your input I ordered fifteen dollars of HHS 6mm square stock blanks. They came from SLC overnight. I have one sharpened and done a little engraving on a piece of steel. It works great and I have four other pieces to work with. I have made small wood inletting tools out of square concrete nails which are as good as the expensive carving tools I have purchased over the years

, but never thought they would be hard enough to engrave on steel - for brass I am sure they would work fine. Have you tried them on steel?
Thanks to all of you.

By the way, this is an old hammer that an old buddy of mine, Buster Warenski, made for me when I took a engraving class from him. As you can see it was a quickly made out of a automotive valve. Buster was the greatest knife maker in the world. He made one knife that took him over a year to make and if I have the story straight, it holds the record for the highest selling modern knife ever made. He has since passed. I missed seeing his knives, but mainly seeing his engraving work and I hack at doing engraving once in a while.

 

[Metalshaper]

saw a hammer made from a bolt, kinda like mine, but the handle and shaft was hardwood dowels. Owner claimed he got a nice 'spring' to
his taps and it helped his rhythm.

 

[cannonball1]

I would really like some information if I could get from some of you who have quite a bit of experience in engraving. The photo show some hand gravers. The small one is a handmade flat one for the removal of background and such. The next one is a Brownell graver I have had for years and the bigger two I made from 6mm X 6mm lathe stock. I cannot see any difference in ease of using the bigger ones than the Brownell graver. My question is this: Every thing I see is the experts using very small hand gravers. Does a very small graver help you see the work any better? I can see how a person can sharpen the tool easier and I should have purchased smaller tool stock, but didn't. Now I have the steel and other than speeding up the process of sharpening what are the other advantages of a smaller graver? Would appreciate your comments.

 

[cannonball1]

By the way I have the book, "The Art of Engraving" and my angles on the points are pretty close to what the book suggests.

 

[Dale Lilly]

Hmmm... not that brave. Love what you all do though. Dale

 

[deerstalkert]

could one make a graver from a broken hss drill bit?
also what are the correct angles.? trying to work up the nerve to do some engraving.

 

[godutch]

here are some of my Home Grown tooling.. chisels are HSS, from 3 lathe tools and a ground jigsaw blade. Hammer made from
a Bolt the weld shop supervisor at work, threw to me and said"What can you make from that?" so I showed him.. not fancy but works??
the vise has a big bowling ball brother in the shop downstairs.. this one made from a lil aluminum drill press vise, bolts, stainless steel bowl with a dab of concrete and a solid lawn mower tire for a base...

Poor men have poor ways??

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan

'Love that vise !

 

[poker]

Heres an antique gravers ball and some misc gravers and pads. Its been quite some time since Ive used it.

 

[Metalshaper]

Nice, I like the lil Graving ball!!!

Respect Always
Metalshaper/Jonathan