Iron inlay for repair and design

[jerrywh]

Here is a place that would have been a nightmare to weld up.
 Better to put in a wire inlay

 
Cut a groove with a flat graver. Undercut the ends and the sides with a small chisel and hammer


 I hammered out a small piece of soft iron wire flat and cut it to the correct length with fingernail clippers.



 Lay the wire in the groove and hammer it in place with a small steel punch- as shown.


 Here it is hammered in well



 The finished plate filed and sanded to final shape and the engraving re cut.   Elapsed time = less than an hour.   No tig required.

Be brave --- just try this on some scrap. You can do it . It’s a good idea to clean the wire on a buffer before pounding in.

[E.vonAschwege]

Jerry,
  Thanks for the great tutorial.    You're right, that'd be perfect for the buttplate repair on the shotgun... I'm going to have to practice that, then try it for real down the line.  How do you hold the wire in place initially while you begin to punch it in?  What's your punch look like?  Thanks again,
-Eric

[jerrywh]

 The wire just fits down into the slot. It is hard to see the groove in the photo but it is about .030 wide and about 5/16" long and about .035 deep. I just took a small piece of round tie wire and flattened it with a hammer so it would fit into the groove.  For a punch I used a 2 1/2" piece of 3/16" drill rod , tapered down to about .060 on the end. If you frost it some on the end it will not slip off the wire as easy.  
   I keep a piece of steel plate on my engraving bench with some 400 grit wet and dry glued to it. To frost a punch just tap it on that a few times and it will frost the end. Don't bother to harden any of the punches. they need not be hardened. This is a medium sized iron inlay. They can be done almost any size. I use one of those small propane torches and a charcoal block for annealing stuff on my bench.
  I'm not the genius who thought this up. I think engravers and metal smiths have been doing this for centuries. Some of the amazing looking  stuff that people think is relief iron chisel work is probably iron inlays in relief. They just don't flush them off. Instead they chisel them to shape in relief.  Some goldsmith probably figured it out around 1650. In other words, some other genius thought it up. Not me. It's no big secret among engravers. At least all the good ones know about it.

[Rick Sheets]

Hey Jerry,
Smooth! Can one "fill-in" annoying modern markings on a lockplate using this technique? (A DEEP Navy Arms marking specifically in my case.) You are not a genius, those guys keep secrets. You share and we appreciate it.
Thanks

[jerrywh]

 You can fill in almost anything with an iron inlay.  If the parent metal is case hardened , you will have to anneal it first.