Best Practice Sharpening Gravers on Diamond Grinding Wheel

[mzinski]

I recently picked up a diamond grinding wheel for my WW lathe. I'm curious about best practices using it to sharpen my gravers (both HSS and carbide) - for example, should it be lubricated, wet/dry, freehand/rest/tool holder, etc. 

I forgot to take a picture this morning but it looks like this: 

Look forward to your advice. 

[JohnR725]

I don't suppose there's a makers name on it?

 

[mzinski]

29 minutes ago, JohnR725 said:

I don't suppose there's a makers name on it?

 

I'll take a look when I get home but I don't recall seeing one. 

Fun aside, I have an unmarked WW lathe I assumed to be Peerless or other American-made. Bought a Boley collet-able tailstock that ended up fitting really nicely. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, mzinski said:

I recently picked up a diamond grinding wheel for my WW lathe. I'm curious about best practices using it to sharpen my gravers (both HSS and carbide) - for example, should it be lubricated, wet/dry, freehand/rest/tool holder, etc. 

I forgot to take a picture this morning but it looks like this: 

Look forward to your advice. 

I'm no expert on lathe gravers or metal engineering but i do have many years of experience sharpening hand cutting tools. Flat plate/block sharpening stones whether diamond, composite or natural stone usually require some form of fluid either oil or water based to reduce friction aiding the action of honing and to prevent the material removed from clogging the pores of the stone. Although diamond plates i often use dry which tends to give a more aggressive cut and is quicker . Whereas I've never or ever heard of grinding wheels being lubricated. I see no reason to soak a stone and spin off excess lubricant and would seem to cause more inconvenience than benefit. It would also need to be of an absorbent material besides. The method of holding the tool to be ground ( not sharpened) is pure choice for a rest or jig depending on your skill but definitely not free hand unless you want the graver embedded in a body part. Once the graver is ground to the required shape then honing to achieve its ultra sharp edge is usually done on flat stones. This would be using a jig either a basic wheeled sharpening jig or a Crocker style unless you are extremely skillful at freehand honing. Different honing angles will have different effects on the workpiece and the tool. A shallow angle will leave a crisp sharp finish that needs no touch up but will dull the blade quickly. Carbide is much harder than hss so its edge will last longer and cut cleaner but is also brittle and can chip. My preference up to now is hss but that may change with more experience.