Not having to come to the defense of a lady but Cindy has been doing this for over 20 years, She is ARA-CRS certified and she did mention that:

"letters were about a 1/16th deep no matter how light the tension was set"

I think the diamond was a 90* or 100* to get that depth . I would pull out a loop and take another look.. You might have a "drag diamond in the rough"

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I have one .005 diamond that is also engraving deep, not as bad as yours is though. I have to remember to check out where it came from.

I did have that problem with a batch of carbide burnishers a long time ago. They did not get the 90* facets on 90*. They were a few degrees off and rather than the surface lying flat on the material, there was a faint angle to the contact. It is amazing how that tiny angle made it a cutter instead of a burnisher. You may need a 75X magnifier to see it, but want to make a bet?

I hate the 'We never had a complaint', or the equivalent of 'You are crazy and we are right', type answers. And that is just what you got.

Call them up and read them the riot act. Tell them you have been doing this probably longer than of their sharpeners, and probably their QC people. Then push with why one bit out of the hundreds does this and they claim the bit is good. Also kick them where it hurts and tell them the bit you just bought from Antares works perfectly and you do not like erroneous lip service. Talk to the head of quality control. Or better yet email them and send carbons to lots of departments there.

They need to know that they lost a customer due to bad product and bad service.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

I am using a Featherweight. Can't imagine not using one. And I thought the same - that there must be something wrong with the tip - it was missing, the cut was wrong - whatever. That's why I returned it to Bruce Diamond. But they said they tested it (even sent me a little plate to prove it) and said it was fine. Believe me, once I got it back, I thought I was doing something wrong and I tried every trick in my book to fix "my" problem. Now I find out it wasn't me after all! Which is always a plus:)

Using diamond burnishers on acrylics is something I've been doing for years. I tried using the rotary cutters on acylics, and the main reason I tried the burnishes and use them today is that I hated the weeding!! That drove me to try anything and everything else to get away from picking, picking, picking all that covering out of the e's, a's etc. I can't stand that type of busy work.
The only acylics I run in to problems with are the PDU acrylics. The material isn't as "hard" as the acrylic from Acrylic Idea or American. So I have to be careful to not use a true type font on the PDU pieces or the burnisher will get going side to side to form the true type letter and dig a hole by the time the letter is completely engraved.

The burnisher from BD is clearly marked .005, and they did inspect it when I sent it back, so don't know what the issue is. I'm just really happy to find out it isn't a personal problem:), or an equipment problem but a tool problem.

Cindy M

That may be what they say, but for glass the only successful way is to use a nose cone and a depth of .001. Those burnishers will show marks on starting overlaps like an 'O'.

When I said that I have one that goes too deep, I am talking about in brass! I missed the part about acrylic. If I used mine on acrylic it would dig a deep hole also. Never a problem except for that new diamond .005 or those ancient carbide ones.

I am fairly certain where I got that bit from, but want to check before posting.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

You're right when you state that years in the job don't always equal skill.
In fact, sometimes I think that oldies tend to get stuck in a groove and think that their way is the only way. After all most young people often have more developed computer skills and handle modern systems much more confidently.
Witness how young people confidently instruct you as to what font and size they require and often how the work must be laid out.

You are right. I should sign my name that way - I've just been a slacker.

I am a newbie compared to you. I learned to engrave on one of the first TRS80's set up with one of the first Dahlgren's. But I've never engraved using a Pantagraph.

My first job was done with a bank president sitting beside me watching every move while I engraved some weirdly shaped letter opener or knife or some such thing. It made me nervous, but at the same time was quite thrilling. I also engraved something for Glen Campbell during my first few engraving months, and at the time, that was quite the thrill until I found out he tosses most of the awards he receives (or so I was told).

Up until I started engraving (and that was quite a fluke because I had actually been hired to oversee the ribbon department but the engraver didn't show up one day so my boss sat me down in front of the engraver and said here's how this works and left me to figure it out) I never knew anything about the trophy/awards business. I only knew ribbon awards.

But I find this industry fascinating and learn something new about some aspect of it every day, especially through this forum.

Thanks for all the info. I will be getting in touch with Bruce Diamonds. I am going to send the cutter back again with a sample from their .005 diamond burnisher and a sample using my new Antares .005 diamond burnisher and let the samples do the show & tell for me.

Cindy Murdoch, CRS :)

I love this forum.

I just bought a burnisher and was going to be looking around for information on using it. Did not even have to look. What a deal.

I checked at the mall today. My gouging .005 diamond burnisher was from Bruce Diamond, purchased from Mitchell Tool while they were going out of business. It works great on glass with a nosecone, but does give some problems when I use it on brass. (No I do not use the same bits for both, I have separate sets.)

I guess that their setup is a little different than Antares on the faceting of the bits.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.