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Old 08-29-2009, 07:38 AM
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Roger Bleile Roger Bleile is offline
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Default Re: Inexpensive way to give it a try

ErichM,

The Brownell's kit has nothing included for sharpening and that is one of the most important elements. Having gravers and no way to sharpen them is like buying a gun and no ammunition. The late Neil Hartleip's book is a useful beginner manual that shows how to manually sharpen gravers on a stone. This method is very difficult for most people to master especially if you do not have an instructor at hand to correct your mistakes.

All of us who learned engraving more than 30 years ago had to manually sharpen on a stone but later I changed to the powerhone, diamond laps, and sharpening fixture. about a year ago I got the Lindsay sharpening system with several templates and now hardly ever use the power hone.

For a beginner, the universal or detail template and a flat graver template will be all you will need for a long time the rest of the templates are fine for advanced techniques but a beginner does not need them.

Good luck to you. I also was in law enforcement when I started engraving.

CRB
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C. Roger Bleile
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