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Old 02-11-2011, 05:59 PM
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Steve Lindsay Steve Lindsay is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Kearney, NE
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Default Re: razorblade micro engravining

Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Short View Post
Just sold for (I've converted it for you folks across the pond) $76,000.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Short View Post
The tools are very fine Victorian needles which I rub down on an arkansas stone and push into a wooden graver handle. I bought them from an antique dealer many years ago. They have gold eyes. The quality is superb. The difficult part is hardening and tempering the needle. It's so thin that I only have to show it to a candle and the heat flies along it. I don't have a lot of control in this - it's hit and miss most of the time. Next year I'll have been engraving for 50 years. I think that will be long enough. My eyesight is now failing. I have a regular course of botox injections around my left eye because it has been affected by strain. This helps, but sadly, the wrinkles are still there!
Hi Graham,
I hope your eyes can hold out and you can keep on micro engraving! It is great what you're doing.

This looked like a fun challenge, so I tried lettering the edge of a razor blade this afternoon.
It was unclear to me in the writeup and picture if the engraving is on the cross section of the blade adjacent to the cutting edge or if it is on the cutting edge itself. If on the cutting edge, there is no flat area there to engrave unless the sharp edge were stoned. Anyway, I tried lettering one of the edges adjacent to the cutting edge to see how it would go.

I left the engraving bright and didn't blacken it in. The letters measure around .005" high. This block lettering is similar to the signature engraving I used on the border of a knife engraving if there isn't a place for it otherwise. I don't try and cut lines for this small lettering, but just make dots with either a bulino graver or a sharpened carbide scribe and use it similar to how scrimshaw is done with dots.

You can make a precise tiny carbide needle points by starting with a 1/16" carbide dental bur. Sharpen in the NSK presto handpiece by holding the bur on a 600 diamond bench stone or diamond lap. Once you have it to a point with this grit, then with it running take it to the 2000 diamond bench stone for a final finish. This is what I made this afternoon for the lettering and then held it in a pin vise. The points can be made long and thin this way or less slender if needed for a stronger tip.

In one of the knife engraving videos there is a recording of the process while engraving the signature. It was done the same way. I'll look for it and post it here.

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