Critique Request copper inlay practice

Here is a practice knife I cut for my wife. That's her signature inlayed in copper and she has a thing for birds. Apparently, bird silhouettes are a popular thing right now. I see now I need to clean up the bird side a little more. Those close up photos don't hide anything!
Her signature was a little hard to see against the highly glossy stainless so I punched around the letters with a sharp point. The signature is easier to see but I'm not sure that was the right thing to do.

Nice, I like it

"Her signature was a little hard to see against the highly glossy stainless so I punched around the letters with a sharp point. The signature is easier to see but I'm not sure that was the right thing to do."

I`m not an expert, but I think you can just cut a thin "hairline" with a v-graver in the steel around the copperinlay instead of punching with a sharp point


jørn-Ove

I like the bird silhouette. It is a nice touch. A lot of what you did looks good. Couple of suggestions if you will.

The background has a lot of scratches in it. I would suggest working on getting your background to a good state (no scratches) before you start engraving. The bird side did create an interesting illusion with these scratches of a windy day.

I noticed there are some nicks around the copper boarder. Sometimes that is hard not to do. One thing that may be able to help you hide it, is to cut a thin line on both sides of the copper inlay all the way around. You will be able to hide some of the nicks as they will start to look like part of the line. It will also will make your inlay stand out more.

Overall it has a very nice and pleasing look to it. I bet your wife is going to love it, and display it to friends with pride. Good job.

Mike

I like it don't hold back cut another. Done a few copper inlays they are fun to work on and learn on. You get to try a few things you might not do with gold. You have already been given some good advise so I will leave that to those that do more inlay work than myself. Again nice job.
Eric

I think that you make your life more difficult that it need to be, using gold would have cost you less than $20.00. Inlaying copper can sometime be useful when you do multicolor inlay as it create a contrast with gold and silver especially if one keep in mind that copper will tarnish to a dark grey, was it your desire?
The signature lack delicacy, you cut it evenly, when most likely the original is not, having use such heavy gauge wire make it look like a ton of brick where the rest of the engraving is light and feminine, I think it create an unwelcome contrast.