Errors in sharpening your graver? => 6 photos

 The oil stone MUST BE THOROUGHLY WET WITH OIL. The steel blade must never be used on a dry area of the stone.

 The graver MUST INITIALLY BE RESTING COMPLETELY ON THE OIL STONE. Not at an angle as seen in the picture on the left.

 The angle of the blade must always be 45 degrees. This angle will give you the exact cutting angle when it is used against the metal.

  The 'keyword' is lubrication. This means that the stone must be "dripping wet" with oil.

 Watch out for this common error: the graver angle is too shallow. What will happen is that the graver point will be too long, and the point will keep breaking as you are cutting with it.

 Keep the graver face at a 45-degree angle at all times.

 This oilstone angle is not perfectly flat (horizontal) because of a problem where all of the oil is draining away to the left side of the stone.

 Thus leaving a very 'dry area' on the right side of the stone to do the graver sharpening. This will result in reduced areas to do the actual sharpening.