I enjoyed that video! Thanks Matthew and Dan for making that happen.

Matthew, thanks so much for taking the time to video your process and Dan, thank you for posting them here. I've wanted to try this for a while, but have never taken the plunge. Would you mind giving some more information on your tooling? I'd be curious for your suggestions for someone wanting to give this a try. What size hammer (I'm assuming it's a chasing hammer) do you use, what are the particulars of the gravers you'd suggest, etc? When I have looked at some of the gravers, it can tend to be a bit overwhelming with options. Also, what is it you're using in the video to touch up your gravers? I've read about varying suggestions on what to do for sharpening gravers which can include systems that can cost a sizable amount of money. Do you find those sorts of costs necessary to get effective use of the tools?

Thanks for any insights and advice. I've really enjoyed seeing the different videos you've made and sharing your techniques.

Jeremy

thanks I am glad you are all enjoying it.

Jeremy- to start out you can forge your own gravers, the one I was using in part two (the thinner line) is forged out of W1 round, they just need a small amount of temper with the W1 I think I only tempered at 300-325 or so. the angle on the point should be about 30DEG. I ordered a bunch of the flat gravers and a knife edge or Onglette (for doing some of the undercutting on curves ) when I first started out doing this, each size has a thickness wire it works best with and each will give a different line width. I like the high speed steel swiss gravers a bit better as they are a bit harder so they stay sharp a bit longer and can cut slightly harder metal. Also you can grind them with out worrying about losing the temper, handy if you chip them or if your sharpening angle gets out of wack, with the W1 I will need to spend some time on the stone to fix a chip ... all the systems for sharping are doing is holding the tool at the proper angle to sharpen, they do help and if I was doing more detailed cuts that might be more important but I just sharpen by eye on a small stone. The stone I was using is a 220 grit EDM stone that I dropped and this broken piece is a handy size to drop in my inlay kit. Any medium or fine sharpening stone will work 220 is about as course as you can go and still leave and nice cut. if you go with the high speed steel gravers make or buy some metal handles for them the wood ones are meant for push graving and don't hold up to hammering. I made my hammer it is around 1/2OZ head so a bit lighter than most chasing hammers. (most are 1-2OZ) just use the lightest hammer you can find and if you find yourself breaking the point off a lot or with a very ragged cut find or make something even lighter.

Thanks so much for all the information, Matthew. It's very appreciated. Maybe I'll order me some gravers and give things a go.

Jeremy

good vids thanks Matt , something else to try !!

Thanks, I'm ready to try this just the push I needed .

I met Matthew last summer (I think) at the ABS hammer-in in Maine. We shared breakfast one morning. Had nice chat about life as an artisan doing arts and craft shows, etc. Nice guy!

Well done Matthew! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!