Difficult silver wire inlay (Updated again with some more photos)

[Long John]

Dave,

I have a question on your rifle and would welcome answers from the others as well. 

When doing wire inlay work, do you draw it on paper first, exactly as you plan to do it on the gun?  How much pre-planning goes into the design BEFORE you start cutting the groves for the wire?  When I start to carve a riflegun I draw what I want the carving to look like on the gun but, much of the time when I'm carving a gun I get ideas as I am carving and the design evolves as I am carving.  (I know - it looks it!)  I plan to try some wire inlay soon and I am trying to get my arms around how much detail goes into the pre-planning.  When I look at Jerry's flint double fowler it seems that it would take weeks of drawing before he ever touched the wood.  Jerry, is that how you go about it?

Thanks everybody for your consideration of my question.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[smart dog]

Hi Hank,
I would love to see photos of your thumb piece and blunderbuss. My e-mail is dkperson13@gmail.com.  Thanks Hank.

dave

[smart dog]

Hi John,
For better or worse, I consider the whole gun to be a blank canvass.  For me, the architecture and decoration all have to work together.  Unfortunately, I am not always successful at that.  Anyway, I first draw sketches of the whole gun and include ideas for decoration in those sketches.  Often those sketches start out as mere doodles but they usually grow into complete images of the whole gun. The sketches also help me to think about and design not only the areas where decoration will go but those spaces that will not be decorated, the negative spaces.  Then I complete a detailed drawing before starting the project.  That drawing has all of the basic outlines of the decoration, carving and wire.  I copy those basic designs on the wood when the time comes to do the carving and wire by printing the designs on transparency film, then positioning the design on film on the stock, and then taping it in place.  I slide carbon paper under it and trace it on the wood.  That gives me the main lines.  I improvise and freehand draw the rest of the details on wood.  For small designs, I often just draw them on the wood and carve or inlay wire without doing the whole transparency thing.

dave   

[smart dog]

Long John,
One thing I forgot to mention, although I trace the main lines on the gun from my drawings, the design may appear distorted when transferred from the 2-D universe of the paper to the 3-D universe of the gun.  Consequently, I often adjust designs freehand on the gun as I go to correct distortions.  That is particularly true for scrolls set into convex or concave surfaces.

dave

[Ed Wenger]

John..., my two cents is that design, relative to wire work is extremely important.  This is especially true with European work.  With Kentucky rifles I don't feel it's as critical, but it's still important. 

Most wire work on Kentucky rifles was relatively simple.  Also, I wouldn't say wire work on Kentucky rifles was nessisarily rare, but it wasn't common.  Boarders around lock and side plate panels, boarders around cheek inlays, accents to carving, etc., is where most wire is found on Kentuckies. 

The vast majority of wire work on Kentucky rifles is characterized by a single wire in the wood.  Scrolls, volutes, etc., were "blended" into the main "stem" to create a design.  With European work, most of the work was done by "stacking" multiple wires into the same opening, and using the various ends to create the volutes, scrolls, etc.  Because of this, wire found on American pieces is typically a little thicker than what was used on European pieces. 

Personally, I draw everything on paper first, then transfer the design to the stock.  Once it's on the stock, I'll typically tweak some things as needed, but never "free hand" anything without first drawing it on the stock....  I spend a lot of time in design, and struggle with it mightily. 


            Ed

[Mark Elliott]

,  I use precut ribbon and sheet depending on the thicknesses I can purchase. I am mostly using 0.008" thick ribbon but add in 0.006" cut from sheet, and 0.013" ribbon for accents and variation.  dave

Dave,

I'd like to try my hand at wire inlay, but can seem to find a good source for flat wire.  Any suggestions?

I have purchased flat wire in the past from Hoover and Strong, but they prefer to deal with jewelers.   I would go to Rio Grande these days for any silver that I needed.