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

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
Do any of you have some advice about inlaying silver wire on a curved surface like the wrist of a gun or a pistol handle?  I use soft fine silver, not sterling, which can be made dead soft for bending to curves but I wanted to check to see if any of you have some tricks to keep the wire conforming to the curve.  Do any of you cut out little wedges on the bottom of the ribbon to make it more pliable?  

dave

[bob in the woods]

I sometimes anneal it. Then run it between two sheets of emery paper.

[jerrywh]

 I use sterling and never anneal it.  One thing you can do is cut a grove in a piece of dowel with a jewelers saw and pre bend the wire in the grove some before starting on that section. As you put the wire in the grove put some water on the part you just installed and let it lock in  before you continue going around the curve. Fine silver is even harder to install than sterling. Clipping the wire makes it harder to get in the grove. If you buff one side of the wire to a rounded edge on a buffer it will go in the grove easier. I cut my wire off of a sheet and buff the edge before I cut it off.

[bama]

Hi Dave

I sometimes peen the edge of the wire ribbon to put a gentel curve into the wire. The only problem with this is it work hardens the wire ribbon as you peen and it is hard to undo or adust the amount of curve without annealing it. Only peen one edge of the wire. I do this with any wire, brass, german silver and sterling.

[Tim Crosby]

 I have used it on Pipe Hawk handles, I prebent,  if that's a word, using a piece of Bass wood shaped like the haft, these tools, the smallest is about 1/16, the largest maybe 5/32,  an Xacto knife, light mallet and files. It takes some playing with.  On the sharper bends of the Oval haft the inlet was very shallow, almost to the point were it was just barely there.





 Tim C.

[Ed Wenger]

Dave, just did some of this today....  What Jerry said!


        Ed

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
Thank you all for the good advice.  I am going for it today and will try Jerry's bending method using a dowel. 

dave

[dogcatcher]

The gentleman that taught me wire inlay was a knifemaker.  First I drew scrolls for about a week, when he was satisfied with my scroll drawings, I spent awhile drawing them on flat pieces of maple.  Then I got to cut the grooves.  Finally he gave me a piece of 10 foot of copper jeweler's flat bezel wire, and had me inlay it in the flat maple.  I roughed it with sandpaper, inlayed it, added a little water and hit it with a heat gun to swell the wood. 

When I got to the curved/rounded wood he tried to teach me how to splice where the splice was barely visible.  Like said above, sometimes part of the inlay was barely in the wood, but the ends or middle parts were deep enough to hold it on place.  He could bevel and ends of the flat wire so good the next beveled end would make a perfect match, barely visible.  Mine never looked as good up close, but at a distance they passed his test.   

In my opinion the keys of a good wire inlay are getting the scrolls drawn correctly.  Then it is the roughing up of the sides of the flat wire with sandpaper, a good straight down slice of the wood fibers and proper damping and heating of the wood to lock the wire in place. 

[smart dog]

Hi Dogcatcher,
Thanks for the advice.  I am not a neophyte when it comes to wire inlay but I have not tried it on strongly curved surfaces. 




dave

[M. E. Pering]

Dave, I have tried the dowel thing and it works.  I do anneal my wire as I work though.  Be very gentle with the torch though.  I usually find I don't even need a mallet or hammer to curve the wire once it is softened, and though I have only done this a couple of times, I am confident in this method.  And BTW, that is probably one of the best St. George and the dragon scenes and themes I have ever seen on a rifle.

Matt

[Tim Crosby]

 Beautiful work Dave. I'm sure your current project will turn out just as well.

  Tim C.

[jerrywh]

Smart Dog.
   That is a great job on that gun. The wire work and engraving is as good as I have ever seen. One thing that people who attempt this kind of work soon learn is that the type and quality of the wood has a lot to do with the outcome. What kind of wood is that ?

[jerrywh]

 Here is a tip for people who want to anneal the wire. This only works with pure silver, it will not work with sterling. If you are working with a piece of silver wire and some of it is in the groove, there may be a need to anneal it.  Silver is about the best conductor of heat there is and pure silver anneals at 500° F .  You can heat the end of the wire that is not near the wood with a small hand torch and the heat will travel down the wire and anneal the part near the wood. The wood will not burn at 500°. You can tell when you reach the annealing temp because the wire will go limp.  A soldering iron will also work hear the wood. 

[Joe S.]

That's some real nice work,wow,the stuff one sees on his site still amazes me.Even more still striving to do even better if that's possible,nice indeed Smart Dog

[Ed Wenger]

Excellent tip, Jerry, thank you!


     Ed

[smart dog]

Hi Folks,
I did some more work on my poor neglected English rifle.  It sits on my rack asking "When are you going to work on me instead of all that other stuff".  Well I worked on it but not where the surface is strongly curved.  That comes next.  I thought you might like to see some results.  The design is right out of the French pattern books but I did not want it to obscure the beautiful wood behind it.  Consequently, I left it somewhat spare despite the fact that the fashion of the time was effusive wire decoration.  All the silver inlays will be engraved.  I think it will look pretty nice.

dave

[oldtravler61]

Very nice work Dave.

[Long John]

Dave,

I think its going to look flipping AWESOME!

Your work is phenomenal!

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[thimble rig]

That's going to look pretty sweet when youre done.Now what size or thickness of silver are you using?And did you cut it from sheets?

[Acer Saccharum]

Joyous!

Thank you for doing this work, uh, being the kind of guy you are, uh, I'm not sure where I can go with this now, but I sure do like your work.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Thanks for looking and the compliments.  I like doing wire inlay. I get better at it on every project and maybe one day I'll be as good as Ed Wenger or in my wildest fantasy, Jerry H. and Dave Price.

Jerry, the wood for the stock on the gun in the first group of photos is very dense cherry but it is stained to look like aged apple wood.  The English rifle is stocked in dense English walnut, which is my favorite wood for carving, inlay, and wire.

Thimble rig,  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.  The inlays are cut from 1/16" thick sheet silver and are held in just by the swelling of the wood.  If you notice, the inlays are really tight.  I adopted Dave Price's method of placing the inlay on the wood, then tapping it with a hammer to make it indent its outline in the wood, then cut away the indented wood.  As long as you are careful about tapping the inlay so it does not bounce, that method works really well.  I compress the inlay under a thin flexible metal ruler and tap the ruler with the hammer.

dave

[Chowmi]

  If you notice, the inlays are really tight.  I adopted Dave Price's method of placing the inlay on the wood, then tapping it with a hammer to make it indent its outline in the wood, then cut away the indented wood.  As long as you are careful about tapping the inlay so it does not bounce, that method works really well.  I compress the inlay under a thin flexible metal ruler and tap the ruler with the hammer.

dave

Dave,
Using this method for inlays, do you still bevel the edges of the inlays like most folks do?  I would assume that in order for the inlay to stay in by swelling of the wood, that you do not do this.  The swelling might just force it out.
Straight sides, or inverse bevel with an undercut?

Thanks,
Norm

[smart dog]

Hi Norm,
Good question.  On cherry and walnut I do not bevel the edges of the inlay.  On hard maple, I bevel the bottom edges very slightly.  That is because, with the softer cherry and walnut, the inlay pushes the wood back, which then can swell around the metal.  In hard maple, the wood does not compress as easily and often the inlay won't go in or simply smashes the wood down.  The bevel relieves some of that pressure allowing the inlay to push the wood back as it is tapped into place.  That has at least been mu experience.  Also, I think Dave Price holds his inlays in place using scotch tape and then taps the to produce the indent.  I find I don't need to do that but it certainly helps make sure the inlay doesn't move when tapping on it.  

dave

[ltdann]

,  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?

[EC121]

Here are some examples of wire inlay on curved surfaces.  Frank told me that he used wood glue and a soldering iron to heat the glue and swell the wood.  www.bricestultzhisblog.blogspot.com