Woodland Dream Tsuba

                                                                                             collection of Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum

This is a brief discussion on my general graver geometry and sharpening methods, which are somewhat outside what seems to be standard or "traditional" practice.

Any student of engraving will quickly find that they absolutely must become familiar with point geometry and be able to fashion their own gravers to suit their needs.

It may appear, when looking at the plethora of information available on the web, that one needs a vast array of gravers or chisels to get anywhere, or that one needs expensive, precision, power driven hones and jigs to produce a functional graver or chisel. Neither of these is true. The most important and necessary component to have is, as mentioned above, a working knowledge of tool geometry to produce the tools that you personally require. Form, indeed, follows function.

I cut my engraving teeth by learning to engrave firearms using James Meek's seminal book, The Art Of Engraving. This book has an excellent introduction to graver geometry. Initially I followed Meek's suggestion of using the Crocker graver sharpener along with his stone holding fixture that keeps your bench stones in a fixed relationship to the Crocker. These days, compared to the current crop of sharpening equipage, the Crocker looks positively Flintstonian, but it works well and is cheap. I would recommend the Crocker as a way for a beginner to get a working knowledge of point geometry and be able to reproduce consistent points.They can then move on in whichever way suits them.

After some years of using the Crocker I visited Leonard Francolini, Colt engraver extraordinaire, who shared with me his style of point geometry which I found instantly appealing. I've described this shape below with photos of how to go about getting it. I use this shape, with variations, for about 80% of my engraving/chisel work, using it in palm-push tools, with a hammer and with the Airgraver, as needs be.

I found that I could form this type of tool by eye without the use of any jig, but I came to that by way of having the grounding in tool geometry from using the Crocker. Some may be able to bypass the Crocker altogether.

Of course, as time goes on, you add a variety of specialty chisels and gravers depending on your needs, but so much can be done with the simplest of tools.

Also, I don't want to imply that I have anything against the use of power hones, jigs etc.,but I would not want anyone to be discouraged from trying engraving because they thought it was necessary to have them and perhaps could not afford them.

From the carved mimi(rim) I wanted to make a gently sloping curve down to the seppa-dai (flat area around the tang hole, or nakago-ana). I used the drill-press to establish this flat area with a series of controlled depth (about 1.5mm) drillings within the seppa-dai area.
Initially I removed the bulk of material with a large rotary burr after the engraved area was blocked out with an onglette graver. The depth of the engraved cut that defines the mimi (rim) is about one-half mm. This means that the background slopes down to the flat seppa-dai about one mm.
The background around the engraved area was first chiseled away, then flatened with files. In this photo chisel marks can be seen just next to the engraved design. Also, one round depth drill hole can be seen that I kept as a guide until the very end of this process.
As can be seen, I use a pretty coarse pillar file for the major surface leveling/blending, being quite careful near the carving and mimi. I use a riffler and smaller pillar files in and around the carving, as well as chiseling and scraping.
Heavy side-light reveals variations in the surface.
When I feel that the surface is filed to a nice contour, I begin to refine the finish with stones, beginning with 150 grit and moving through finer grits to 600 on this piece. These stones work fine using water as a slurry medium.
Progressing with finer stones around the carving. The carved surfaces were refined using stones, scrapers and rotary abrasives.
End-view with light behind showing raised mimi and curve down to the seppa-dai.
Final background shaping, still to be textured. Engraving and mimi need more refinement.

Final finish before patina.  61 mm wide