Decorating a lock

[whitebear]

I recently bought a Squirrel Lock from Track and think that I remember seeing over the years a picture of this lock with the squirrel and tree limb plated with brass or German Silver or maybe a combination of the two.  Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

[jerrywh]

 I would have to see a photo of it before I could tell you how it was done.
it may be inlaid silver. That is probably the best way.

[galamb]

Davis makes it with a brass plate - Track doesn't carry that option, but MBS does (cheapest/easiest option may be getting the brass lockplate from Davis).

I am aware of industrial places that will "plate" for you but when I inquired a few years back it was quite cost prohibitive unless you would be doing dozens of pieces.

Perhaps there is a at home/DIY way - would be interested myself if there is.

[Acer Saccharum]

Gold or silver, brass, etc, can be inlaid into steel. So you can have a silver branch on your lockplate, and engrave a squirrel climbing it.

[Chris Treichel]

You could also make them out of multiple metals each with their own properties so when you chemically treat the plate they will stand out better... Say the Plate out of steel, branch out of copper, squirrel out of shibuichi (copper+silver/gold turns black) and an acorn out of silver... so that when treated the background is polished steel, a brown branch with a black squirrel going for a silver nut.  Not quite American traditional art but here is an example... http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/tsuba-with-design-of-squirrel-and-vine-12188

[Chris Treichel]

Another option with the below lock would be to use something like butter of gold and mercury (fire gilding) to make part stand out... its a very toxic process.

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/780/1/LOCK-SQ-CL-RH

Here is what that can look like...

http://luxurylaunches.com/auctions/a_parcel_gilt_and_niello_mounted_flint_lock_pistol_is_expected_to_fetch_about_2000030000.php

http://www.aaawt.com/html/firearms/f194.html

[Mark Elliott]

You know,  this tread has really got me thinking about all the different colors you can get by inlaying different metals, especially if you treat them to get different oxides of that metal.   You could potentially get a wide range of colors,  not just gold, silver, or gray.    There are different colors of gold from white to yellow to pink.   Silver can be silver or black.  Steel can be silver to black, several shades of blue, red/brown.   Copper can be reddish brown, brown, or blue/green.   Brass can be yellow, reddish yellow, or blue/green to green.   Tin could be silver or gray.    I am going to have to tuck this away in the back of my mind for some future project.   

[jerrywh]

Engravers have been using multi colored gold and other metals on guns since at least 1750 and also mercury gilding.  It is common in the Engravers guild today. What is odd is when myself or others use it on muzzle loaders today most other builders criticize it as being too far out. shibuichi, niello and mocumboo are seldom if ever used on guns but I have been thinking of using laminated metals on some flower arrangements when doing modern guns. For some reason anything over a tiny amount of copper looks out of the way on guns unless it is oxidized. I don't think the woord mocumboo is spelled correctly but it is a form of precious metal fussion done in Japan. It is difficult to do and is more fitting on jewelry because of the thickness of it. American long rifles never had multi colored golds on them that I am aware of until lately.  Below are a couple of examples. In the photo of the eagle there are actually three colors of gold but the camera I had would not photo them well. The Indian chief was done by Ron Smith of Dallas Texas
 One of the very best in the world.

[Captchee]

 to add to what Jerry has stated . There are oxides  that we know of today , which will  cause rusting to happen in just about any color you want .
 You also have  Mokume gane  which is  rather interesting

[Chris Treichel]

If your really interested in those oxides and just what you can do with them... www.followingtheironbrush.org
Ford is currently putting a book together about this.

[Mark Elliott]

Jerry,

This thread did remind me of that eagle you did.    Maybe one of these days, I will have the skill to do something similar, although at the time I thought it was perhaps a might too far.     The thing is, as my carving and engraving gets better,  I want to do more than your would find on your average longrifle.    Maybe I will have to switch over to Jaegers after a while.

I probably should come out an take a class from you one of these days. 

Mark

[Captchee]

dont know if he still has it up or not Chris but  ford did a very nice video  showing  the process of using   butter of gold and mercury  while recreating a sword  guard

[frogwalking]

I used to electroplate silver years ago.  I got some silver cyanide somewhere, and used a metal handled acid brush with a wire soldered onto it, and a dry cell battery.  It seems like the silver cyanide might have been a little dangerous.  It worked great though.  My wife bought some silver plated flatware that needed to be replated.  I found several companies offering silver plating kits on the internet, but they were too expensive for what we wanted to do.

[jerrywh]

 Besides all type of metal inlay work I also do gold,silver,copper, and nickel plating.  I studied mercury guilding but it is too dangerous.  I need to save whatever brains I have left at least for a while. Oxide stuff is very simple. You can buy all the supplies needed for these processes from rio Grande jewelry supply.
 Part of this is selectively plated and part of it is inlaid.

 When you combine all these processes almost anything is possible. There is a such thing as purple gold and Lee Griffith did a butterfly in purple gold a few years ago on a gun he did. This stuff is expensive to play with.