Wire inlay

[Pete G.]

I have a piece of wire inlay that won't stay put. One end sort of springs up a small bit. I am a little hesitant to use any glue since the wood is not stained yet and don't want a spot where the stain will not take. What's the fix for this?

[Dave B]

Pete,
I have run into this on occasion. It will happen when driving the wire down into a section thats alittle too tight and the wire bows up. If the section is short I would pull it up rebend it after roughing up the bottom edge of the wire using a sharp chisel.  Wallace Gussler talked about this technque wherer you set your wire edge up on a firm surface and drop the sharp chisel cross wise on the bottom edge repeatedly along its surface. This creates little burs that will help keep the wire down. I use a corse mill file to drag my ribbon of silver under to make the burs horizontal its full length on both sides. Just make sure that your wire is not too tight going in this will cause bowing.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Dave has the answer.  I would carefully pull the ribbon back out of the wood, keeping track of which is the start and which is the finish end.  Then, hold the ribbon upside down on the anvil of your vise and using a DULL knife, gently tap the thinned edge, raising a proliferation of little burrs. Cover the entire edge with them.  Then, Carefully reinstall the ribbon.  When it's in, rub a wet cloth over the ribbon and let it dry.  the wood will swell a bit and further lock the ribbon in.
Try a sharp one if you want.  If you have not thinned the ribbon into a knife edge, it might work better than a dull one.  I had a heck of a time finding a dull knife.  So I made one.

[George F.]

What kind of wire? Sterling, brass, or German? Sometimes if your working on contours like the wrist, you should pre bend the wire so it all lays in the groove. If you hold the wire between your fingers on the flat sides you want it to bend up or down and not straight. This will compensate for the contour. The silver does this very easily, the brass  will do it if the wire is annealed. the German silver is springy. The wire has to be drawn again with the pressure to pull it down. To correct this on wire that is installed, you can cut it with your tiny diagonal cutters, and re-install the wire, if you loose it which will happen if it's small and handled a few fustrating times, you run the risk of dropping it.  Make another, this time be careful. I install the wire, then force glue in and around the wire after it installed, then use warm water as a clean up. Be careful the rag doesn't grab the wire and pull it out. The water will swell the wood and close everything up.  After a few hours you can clean up all the wire that is above the stock with a jewelers file, followed up with sandpaper.   ...Geo.

[Pete G.]

Thanks guys. It is German silver. Would it help to aneal? It is on the cheekpiece, so a rather flat surface. I've tried the pulling across the file trick and couldn't really get much done, which is probably causing my problem. What type of glue are we talking about here? Years ago in shop class I learned (the hard way) that white glue fills the pores of wood and stain will not penetrate, at least on white pine. I've tried wetting it twice now and both times it tightened up until the wood dried out again, then the end would again spring up just above the surface. Not enough to grab with pliers, but just enough to feel and see. BTW this is an almost straight section at the end of a scroll. The curved pieces are fine, so it might just be a problem with the design.

[George F.]

What kind of wood is the stock? If it's nonporous (maple, cherry) then you really don't have pores like the porous woods like Walnut and ash. If its maple, you can use Elmers yellow if you have it, but lately I've been using the Stainable glue. You are still cleaning up with water and re-sanding the area so you won't have any problem. As for the German Silver wire, I don't know how it's annealed, sorry. I think, its annealed like brass but I'm not sure.  ...Geo.

[George F.]

I see that this was mentioned about dragging the wire across a file to put grabbing edges on it. I drag my wire across a hack saw blade, 24-32 tpi. The lines you put on the wire will run  long ways the length of the wire. After that is done, I file a bevel on the bottom edge on both sides. This I believe as the wire bottoms out in the groove will distort or put a burr on the bottom giving it extra holding power.  Hope this helps...Geo.

[Acer Saccharum]

German silver will get spring hard. Probably a good idea to anneal only if unworkable. If too soft, it may squash rather than go into the groove.

Dragging it along a file certainly will harden the wire.

Tom

By the way, if anyone here is going to Dixon's, I wish to announce that Taylor is going to give a talk on "Wire Inlay" on Friday. Just thought I'd mention it.

[Acer Saccharum]

George, what you said.

It makes a difference how the wire and file meet. I would prefer to lay the wire on a board, and drag the toothy object along the length of the wire.

if you put the file in the vise, and draw the wire over it, it may not get the grooving it needs, and it will become distressed, distorted, stretched.

[Blacksmoke]

Pete G. --  George F. is right if the stock is maple or cherry you do not have to worry about water soluble "white glue" filling the pours and prohibiting the stain from penetrating. Just make sure that all the excess glue is wiped of the surface of the wood before you let it dry. Another tip is to kind of squeegee the glue down in beside the wire with your thumb--then when the water swells the wood back together there will be some glue down in the groove which will adhere the wire to the wood.  One last tip--I use a small flat iron that will sizzle when you put a drop of water on the sole and a piece thick flannel cotton cloth soaked with cold water-- apply the cloth to the area to be steamed and then apply the iron to the cloth! the steam will be forced down into the wood and crevasses and all will be swelled back together.  The heat will also help with curing the glue.  Leave it over night and you will be able to dress off the wire that has been left proud the next day. Only use fine cut files and fine sand paper.   Good luck,   Hugh Toenjes

[Birddog6]

If it is German silver you may need to anneal it.  As for the glue, I use Elmers Stainable Wood Glue & I don't have a issue with it not staining. I squeegie it into the slot & then put the wire in it., then dampen a piece of cloth & wipe off the excess glue.
Also,  I fold a piece of emery cloth & pull the wire thru it rather than use a file. This emery will cut microscopic  gouges into the wire lengthwise & works great for me.
Some of the wire I have bought has been just plain $#@*, and so @!*% hard you can't do anything with it no matter what you do.  If you get any of that which is Really springy, just send it back, it is a PITA. The last wire I bought came from MBS & it worked fine.
  Also ask them the thickness of the wire, as it does vary from vender to vender.

Keith