Inlay Question

I didn't want to risk hijacking Christian's thread, Really nice black powder shotgun by the way.

I am wondering if when you inlay a pattern such as this one. Do you butt the wires up against each other and hammer them together or must a pattern be pierced and laid in the channels? (don't know if i am asking this correctly but I'm hoping someone will get the gist of this question)

David, you can do it either way. I have evolved into doing it in wires side by side mostly, but when doing it with wires, you need a channel for each wire which takes some experimenting and more experience. The easier way would probably be the sheet and pierced or sawn out design. That is the way most of us started I think. Not seeing the design you are talking about, I often make that decision according to the shapes and difficulty of the inlays etc.
Ron S

Hi David,
Just to add a little to my friend Ron's excelent advise.
To inlay the linework on the upper tang of this gun I would use wire and carefully butt the ends to meet, as you say.
For those that have not done this type of work you undercut the channel on each side, that's all you usually need for a single line wire inlay.
Then select a wire that is about 130% more than will fill the channel to allow for finishing down to eliminate the dents in the top surface from punching it in.
Remember all, the finished line will never be any better than the channel you cut.
This is a very nicely done piece of work. It would have been a little more dramatic if the engraver had have been allowed to cut a light shadow line where the silver meets the steel. Really makes it pop.
But as always, I suspect time/price played it's part and the engraver had to stop somewhere.
A very nice gun and Christiaan is rightfully proud of it.

Just my thoughts, John B.

John--this is the second or third time I have see it mentioned to run a light line alongside the inlay. I'm not exactly sure where to run the line--could you, or someone, post a pic--this sounds llike a sharp way to brighten up the inlay.
Charlie

Thank-You for your responses Ron and John.
I would also be interested in seeing a pic of an inlay with the line cut on the side if anyone has one handy.

SharpGraver said:

I didn't want to risk hijacking Christian's thread, Really nice black powder shotgun by the way.

Click to expand...

SharpGraver, you are welcome to hijack my thread. I'm learning with you. And... I'm coming from the country of Hijackings
Maybe I must ask Jacques Herbst to put a line around the silver inlay? It should lift it even more.

Thanks Christiaan. That is one Awesome shotgun. I didn't even know something like that was available.

may I hijack your avatar for other non engraving sites? it gets me every time, I just about put my thumb through my laptop screen the first time I saw it. makes me laugh every time Thanks

You are more than welcome to hijack the avatar. I thought nobody noticed it. Puts a smile on my face as well. Been trying to wipe it off my screen as well.

Hi Charlie.
For a good example of where to cut the line between the gold/silver go to our host Sam's Tutorials at the top of the page. On the left scroll down to Gold Wire Inlay and open it.
Many of the postings of gold scroll or linework show this as a thin black line following the edge of the gold or silver. Hope this helps.

Hi Christiaan, Jacques could add the detail shadow line very easily with his great skill, I'm sure.
But your gun looks terrific as is. And if the line were to be added now, the frame might have to be refinished.
If it were my gun, I'd leave this loverly piece as it came from the maker.

I forgot to mention a couple of things on my previous post and this is just for the folks that are new to inlay.
Sterling silver is nearly impossible to inlay in the normal way, use pure or .999 silver only.
In yellow gold 24K is mostly used. 22K will give more shine if that is desired. You can go down in "K" from there but it gets a lot harder to inlay.
High K green gold is not too bad. Rose and pink always give you fits.
Pure copper is not bad but watch out for problems it can cause in the bluing tanks.
Other folks may differ with these ideas.

Just my thoughts, John B.