[Jewelry making - Article 00367] - Re: [Orchid] Engraving problem

[Rex and Gabrielle Merten]

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    Hi Marco, About your onglette graver... you can polish a 'set' on
    onglettes. I do it all the time, both on my spitstick scorpers for
    setting and my onglette gravers for cutting fine lines. Perhaps I've
    misunderstood your statement "...when I use an onglette graver which
    belly cannot be modified...", but it is quite easy to adjust the
    belly of the onglette to a 'set' of whatever angle you wish. I angle
    all my 'sets' by hand and eye. I don't use the jigs for holding the
    gravers and never have; being trained to do this by hand and eye
    because it is much quicker and more flexible given the vagaries of
    the work at hand. 

    The average 'set' is an angle of around 3 to 5 degrees for flat work
    and it is simply a matter of holding the onglette blade at that angle
    on the whet-stone and rolling the blade as you grind to match the
    slight curve of the heel or belly. I finish off the 'set' on
    onglettes with my emery buff to smooth out the curve and remove any
    flat spots, then finish to a polish with 5 micron diamond lapping
    film.  I am currently using four sizes of onglettes from a small size
    2 up to a broad size 12 and I have polished angled sets on all of
    them according to what is needed. 

    I often re-cut the 'set' angle to accomodate the work. For example,
    I recently had to engrave in the bottom of a steeply concave silver
    dish and had to readjust my 'set' to around 30 degrees just so I
    could get the onglette in there. It felt strange to use the graver at
    such an angle, but the engraving turned out OK. 

    About the pins on your engraving block... I too found that the
    standard pins got in the way of the graver, so I've made up a variety
    of different length pins out of appropriately sized brass rod, to
    ensure that the pins don't project beyond the upper surface of the
    plate thickness. I can file the pins into different shapes to suit
    different jobs. Hope this helps. Rex Steele Merten


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