The details are fairly simple. The steel needs to be hardened and tempered just right or the turning process won't work. Too soft and it turns to a mess with a poor surface finish, too hard and the extremely sharp edge of the graver will just go dull in an instant. Even when the steel is just right, you'll spend more time keeping the graver sharp than actually using it.
My microscope setup is very rudimentary and honestly I need to upgrade it at some point. I need to choose the lathe RPM so that the whole setup doesn't vibrate too much or otherwise I won't see what I'm doing. Ideally all of the components, the lathe, the motor and the microscope would be mounted on separate surfaces to eliminate as much vibration as possible. Now they're all mounted on a simple wooden board.