Another Oldie

I have'nt put a picture here for at least two hours.....so here's another!
It's an oldie that some of you might remember seeing in the mags in 97. Another of Peter Nelsons excellent and beautifully made double rifles.

Phil

That cat is great, well as is the rest of it. You have probably been asked many times but what metals did you inlay, and how do you get your pink gold so red? If you don't mind me asking of course. Thanks for showing that. Brian

I love the cheetah and the subtle effect you made around him.

Once again it's obvious that both your artistic and engraving skills are truly exceptional.

Don't worry about boring us by posting pictures - it'll be hard but we'll get through it.

Phil,
You have posted a number of pictures of guns with that beautiful, deep black finish on them. It appears to be something other than normal bluing. Any idea how it is achieved. I realize that you probably don't do the finish, but wonder if you have any insights regarding it.

Dave

Mr. Coggan, As usual your work is absolutely astounding i think maybe the next jump that cat makes will be right off the rifle frame. Thank you for giving the rest of us some thing to strive for. Mike

Phil,

This is so inspiring! Do please continue to post these outstanding works of art, we cannot get enough. I do hope that you and your son are archiving some video that documents you two at the bench. It would be such a national treasure to watch you at work, even if it is not released till later, just so long as it gets done?

best

Rod

Brian,
The metals are Yellow, green, red and silver. This picture was scanned from an original and had to be tweeked a little that is why the red is so 'Red'. The red on the action and trigger guard is closer to the proper colour.

DKanger,
The gun was colour hardened by Richard St.Ledger, sometimes the colours come out better than others, it's a bit of a lottery really.

Phil

Phil, Sorry I should have phrased my question better, what I meant was, what karats of the colored golds do you prefer to inlay? I have been doing some colored inlays, but as we all know pink gold can be a bear to work with, especially when putting it into something delicate. I have been using 18k but have contemplated going to a higher carat when I run out of the gold I have, but I am unsure if there would be much change in maulibility, or how much loss of color there would be. I'd like to get your thoughts on what you have found to be the best karats within the various colors to inlay. Thanks -Brian

Brian,
I use 24, 22, and 18 in yellow, 18 in green. I've inlayed all the reds and to be honest there's not much between them in hardness. It depends what colour you want, you'll find that the 22 has'nt a lot of colour in it.
The area under the cat is s/silver, it's too large for something like white. Silver is good but it has to be laquered to stop oxidization. You'd have to think twice about doing something like this for a heavy shooter as the laquer will wear off. Luckily my guns are rarely shot if at all in some cases.
The same goes for copper, now copper can look great and is easy to inlay. I've had guns come back to me after hardening for laquering where i've inlayed copper in amongst yellow and green. The hardening process had caused a beautiful red border and I mean really Red, around the yellow and green leaves. I you tried to produce that effect, well I don't think you could.

Another thing that he have to take care with is when there's a join running through the gold. If you look at the leopards front paws, the trigger plate runs right through them. It's not good enough to run the gold to the end of the steel because when the plate is taken out it has to be lifted up at an angle and this could lift the gold.
A cut has to be made just in from the edge and undercut, it has to be lower than the surface so that just a few thou of gold is spread to the edge. This cut is used as an anchor.
When the gold inlay is finished you can't see that join, but the more the plate is taken in and out it starts to get noticable.
I leave all the fine shading of the gold until the regelating and hardening has been done. I have learned by past experience that the gold can be easily damaged and it's a lot easier and time consuming to repair it without any lines on it!

Phil

Phil, This is wonderful work. Sorry I did not get my question here in time for you answer it with Brian's. What is the wire size of the smallest gold wire inlay? Thanks for sharing your work.

Joe

Phil, Thankyou for the info on the gold, you saved me much experimentation, and also how you handle joints, I do use a simililar method for that, but I will try your way next time around, it sounds a bit more durable.

Another question came to mind that you may also have dealt with. What has your experience been with the customers perception of you using copper and silver in your work? I have used them in the past, for the reason that it expands your color pallet. However, I have recently avoided them after some suggestion that customers prefer gold of what ever color as long as it is gold, because of the idea of it being gold, and they would rather not have the non-gold material in the piece. Now this is for knives, but have you experienced any similar train of thought with the gun customers? And if so, how do you get around that way of thinking?

Joe,
The smallest size wire I use is 0.1.5mm.

Brian,
Your second question, you've answered for me, I don't use copper anymore, on guns of this price it just does'nt seem right. My customers have never commented on this though.....perhaps the did'nt know

Phil

Phil I think this is one of the finest works you ever posted. It looks so clean and precise. The design, and the cat is extraordinarily executed.

Thanks all.
Here's a little trick for newbie's trying out inlaying letters.
Once the letters are cut out and wet and dry'd flat, just drop some dirty oil, (from a sharpening stone etc) into them, check them with a magnifying glass. The oil goes where the gold does and raised or rough areas show up straight away!

Phil