New wriggle engraver, equipment advice needed

[msmith1989]

Hi everyone, I'm a brand new member and complete beginner from the UK, so I thought I would introduce myself and get a little advice!

First of all thank you for accepting me, so far the forum has been very inspirational and I've seen some incredible and inspiring engraving! I can't wait to get started

So I'm Max, and I want to get into instrument engraving, specifically drums. So this invovles mainly using the wriggle technique. I've got my flat edge HSS vallorbe gravers and handles, I've got my gloves ready, I just need a few more bits of advice before getting started.

As a complete beginner, I'm not finding any explicit instructions on sharpening my gravers before use. People keep mentioning 'heels' but I'm not sure what this means Can anyone give me a little more information on what grinder/stones I need, and how I should actually shape/sharpen my gravers before installing the handles and using them?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated, very excited to get the rest of my gear set up and make a start!

Thanks again,
Max

[Dennis]

Hi Max and welcome to the forum.
On the top right, click on the words advanced search and try various key words: graver, scorper, Goldsmith, and you will come across past threads.
Goldsmith (James Miller ) will see this in the next few days and hopefully direct you further. Dennis.

[enigma]

I engrave a little with an Airgraver but must confess Ive never heard of the wriggle technique .
You may find a specific engraving forum more useful for engraving related issues.
Shaping gravers is a whole art form in itself and very much dependent on what you want to achieve with them.
This is a forum Im a member of which is dedicated to engraving:
http://www.engravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=11956

[ps_bond]

I don't think wriggle is going to work with an Airgraver...

For wriggle, heels are not as much of an issue. So long as you're rocking the graver back & forth consistently, you should end up with an even line.
If you search the forum there's quite a lot on graver setup & sharpening. Don't worry too much about polishing the thing, it's not critical here. You may be making a rod for your own back going for HSS though... It's far more work to sharpen, although it needs less frequent resharpening.
Good technique for thin metal, it doesn't require much force (so won't distort things) & can cover a large area quickly.
BTW - you can wriggle with any graver or scorper (more or less - I've never tried it with an onglette admittedly), doesn't have to be flat.