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Old 03-18-2015, 04:54 PM
Ray Cover Ray Cover is offline
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Default Ray Cover templates sharpening tutorial

Hey folks,

A few folks have been after me to do tutorial on how to use the Ray Cover set of templates Steve has for sale. So... I am going to try and do that here.

I ask that everyone refrain from questions, comments etc until the end. By waiting until the end it will keep the tutorial cleaner and uncluttered. More importantly it will allow me to keep my train of thought so I can finish this in one evening and get it done.

It is a really simple set of templates and I will try to be as straight forward as I can with the explanations.

I am going to start with the tapering template since that one seems to give people fits for some reason.

In this tutorial the captions are UNDER the pictures not on top of them. So anything said refers to the picture above unless otherwise noted. I also want to point out that the pics are taken with a graver that has already been made. I just did not have time to actually make a graver as I went with the pictures.



First we set the length that the graver sticks out of the fixture using the measuring tube, just like you do with any of the other Lindsay style templates.



The use of this template is pretty basic. It simply tapers the top and sides of a graver blank down to the desired size. You can use this template to taper any graver to any size face you want no matter what Lindsay template was used to make the graver. This template is made to put approximately a 5 degree taper on the sides and top of the graver blank. There are two long sides to this template that taper the sides The picture above shows one of the long sides being used to taper one side and the picture below shows the other long side being used to taper the other side.

[IMG]/http://engravingschool.com/forum-pics/Rays-sharpening-tutorial/taper3.jpg[/IMG]

Please note: It is important to try and keep your graver symmetrical or the same distance from the center-line on each side. Always check this at the face of your graver. Students often hand me a graver and ask if its OK. I hand it back to them and tell them they have one side bigger than the other and they can't see it. The reason they don't see it is because they are looking at the distance they ground back toward the butt of the graver on each side thinking that if it the grind is the same distance back on each side it is the same width from side to side on the face. This usually isn't true. For this to be true EVERY aspect of the set up has to be set perfectly. The top of the hone has to be perfectly flat. The diamond lap has to be perfectly parallel with the top of the hone. the spindle of the hone has to be perfectly square to the top of the hone. The arbor on that spindle has to be perfectly square to the spindle. The laps can have no warp or flex to them at all. That is a lot of perfection that just usually doesn't happen in real life. To check your symmetry, put your graver under a loupe, magnifier, or microscope and look at the face to make sure each side is the same distance form the centerline running down the belly (or the the same distance from the point if you have already ground the face).


The short side shown being used above tapers the top of the graver. That pretty much sums up the taper template.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg taper1.jpg (50.5 KB, 0 views)
File Type: jpg taper2.jpg (44.8 KB, 0 views)
File Type: jpg taper3.jpg (49.5 KB, 0 views)
File Type: jpg taper4.jpg (48.9 KB, 0 views)
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