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Old 03-05-2013, 02:54 PM
piper piper is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Germany
Posts: 413
Default Re: Mike Dubber "Speitzer" Graver Point Template set

Thanks for the response both of you,
And after I had a moment to think about your painfully blunt statement...you might be a bit too correct. I should know about heels, true. I'm trying... it is 300 Posts of questions, if you bother to check. And... if I can cut a line at all, it is due to the kindness of those on this forum for having the patience to answer my dumb questions. So, you say I might not understand the basics of heels. Could be. I've never had any instruction. One of those things that happen when you live thousands of miles from most of those who teach and those that do indeed teach within distance...I just can't afford to ask to teach me. Any kind of instruction is out of my financial range. But... we still keep on plugging along anyway, cause it tickles my fancy and despite not being of the standard of some of those on the forum, the things I manage to make, still look good to me, give me a smile and please the recipient. But...we will accept your evaluation, as it seems to be accurate.

I wish I had a better camera, as I would take a picture of the point. My 15 year old camera won't focus well enough. But the heels are not long. Just a band of maybe a hair width or less. My universal tip has more heel. Twice as much. So I "think" my heel is not too long. So this leaves the fact that I may be cutting with the graver too low. Could be. True, when I start a cut, I tend to tip the point up high to get into the metal so as to avoid the bottom of the graver making a long "V" shaped start before the start of the line, which is difficult to control and you have to start a bit away from the end of the line to avoid it. I back cut, but if I don't watch out, the beginning of the cut isn't where it should be. As you say, the back of the heel is plowing in before the point. And I do have to push down on the graver. True. Perhaps all of this could have been avoided by a bit of instruction or having started with normal hand pushed gravers rather than having started with a tiny wonder that will push the graver through the metal at all or any speed or angle you want to use. I do indeed cut a bit deep as cutting too lightly makes such thin lines that you end up re-cutting much of your work just so you can see what the picture is without the aid of a microscope. I want it visible. So I cut wide, and that translates to deep cutting unless you use a graver with a heck of an angle like a caligraphy point.
I just did a bit of cutting with my universal and it drags only when it cuts a very tiny circle that you maybe shouldn't be cutting anyway. And nice and deep it will go before dragging in the circle. The Spreitzer drags still much faster and at almost no depth and much less of a circle. That's why I posted this question in the first place. Remember the Spreitzer has much less heel than my universal. Tipping the graver way up does nothing to make it better, still drags. So although I do indeed need to catch up with all of the rest of you on heel theory...there is still something not right with this point. I will give it a heel like my universal and get back on this. But please do remember that I never would have posted this question, if this graver had acted as my other ones do. Maybe after I re-do the tip it will turn out what with the strange half round form of the heel, that I screwed up the heel at the tip. Maybe that is the problem. I've got a lot of hours and a lot of finished projects behind me, but I've just not seen anything quite like this before. And all through this thread, all anyone talked about was how nicely it cut a straight line. Not a word about it being used for normal curves. So when mine acted funny, I started to wonder if it was even intended for curves at all. But, live and learn. Thanks for the assistance... and the astute observations. ;-)
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