On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:38:20 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:


I agree with the traditional German "Style". I got the German kind when
I lived there. Don't use them anymore. They are very heavy in the
hand. When I cam to the US, I bought a Swiss made one, that was rather
bad, but I took it apart, and completely rebuilt it. Made a new handle
for it too. This frame is now so well balanced, I would be in mourning
if I ever lost it.



My favorite is actually a slightly ligher frame from the german ones. It's an
old french frame. Similar style to the germans, but lighter, oval cross section
steel, nicer handle. Who knows how old. Early 20th century perhaps... Was old
when I got it in the 70s. But I'm equally happy with the german frames, for
the most part. My biggest beef with them is that the screws to tighten the
blades are on the left side as you saw. Easier for a right hander to change
blades, but I annoyingly sometimes hit my thumb with the upper screw. So I
modified that frame to turn the screw around to the other side. Some frames
sold now allow that as a user choice.




There are sawblades, and then there are sawblades. Some very wide variations in
price. Some of the costliest are not really the best for beginners, since
they're often tempered to a harder state, making them better for harder metals,
or tough to cut metals like platinum, or steel. But for most beginners, a
medium quality level blade is just fine, and saves money, since you'll actually
break fewer of them. But I've not looked at the frei web site to be sure what
you got. So maybe you're fine....


(Tevel, at Allcraft, in New York, always seems to have specials on some
cool pliers at amazing prices, at every SNAG convention...) You can even find
servicable cheaper pliers at places like Harbor Freight.

Don't!


The ones from allcraft are usually the good german ones. The ones from harbor
freight are cheap junk chinese. But I like to have a few around, because from
time to time I need to modify a pair of pliers with custom grooves to hold
something odd, or for polishing something unusual, or reshaping the jaws in some
other odd way. Often this makes the pliers useless for normal routine tasks. So
it's nice to have the cheapies around for such modifications, since the result
is usually a tool worth keeping, just in case, but not one I'll need often. For
that, the cheapies work fine.


Small bits get dull
quickly, and when dull don't work as well and break easily. You'll get a lot
more life out of your bits if you learn to sharpen them. Needs a good
magnifier, and use a fine grit seperating disk in a flex shaft to sharpen them.

No! Use a sharpening stone, with the drill in a pin vise. You'll have
much better control.

To each his own. I find I have better control, and get a better point, my way.
I'd note that I'm talking about small drills, maybe size 55 and up. I can
resharpen a number 80 bit my way. I tend to break the damn things doing it on
flat stone. Clumsy, I guess... I use the very thin .010" flexible seperating
disks, which have a quite smooth side. they also break easily, but that's
another issue. I hold the bit in a pin vise as you do, or sometimes just still
in the #30 handpiece. Either way, the vise or the chuck can be used to see that
you've turned the bit 180 degrees from one face to the other. I use a ten power
eye loupe when sharpening these, so I can see just what I'm doing. If the
handpiece holding the seperating disk and the chuck or vise holding the drill
are held carefully in alignment, the angles are very easy to keep equal from
side to side, and this way, I can easily see just as I start to grind the bit,
that I'm right on the original angles of the bit. In short, this works very
well for me. But it's not for everyone, I agree. One thing it allows,
difficult with a sharpening stone, is that with the cutting edge of the
seperating disk (not the flat side that I use for the actual sharpening), I can
also split the point, or thin the web of the bit. This is useful once the bit
is getting down to the end of it's flutes, where the web is getting too thick.
Putting a split point on them makes it cut like a new bit again, and helps it to
not wander off target when starting the hole (something they can do when the web
is too wide, even with a properly center punched mark to start the hole. You
do, when sharpening this way, need to be careful not to overheat the bit if
you're sharpening carbon steel bits (like the drills/burs with 3/32 shanks). But
usually, the problem with overheating those occurs when actually drilling, and
the drill is getting dull, not when sharpening again.

cheers

Peter