Gold inay

DARNEW

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
82
What are the steps for inlaying gold. I had a gun smith tell me to engrave the piece first and cut out the area to inlay, then give it to him to polish and blue. Then go back and inlay the gold. He said the bluing salts would eat the gold out, but from what I can tell from looking at all the work done here, it looks to me that everybody inlays first, than engraves the rest of the piece then has it blued. I just want to be sure. Also should not the piece be polished first before I cut it so that the polish dose not degrade the engraving?

Doug
 

Marcus Hunt

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
1,799
Location
The Oxfordshire Cotswolds, England
Doug, I don't know what solutions your gunsmith is using but his suggestion is definitely NOT the way to do it. The gun is first polished, removing any file marks, etc. Then you engrave and inlay and then blue. If you give it back to him to polish chances are he'll annihilate your undercutting and then you'll damage the blue reundercutting. Inlaying already blued parts is a pain in the butt and the results are nowhere near as good as stoning flush and then bluing.
 

fegarex

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
2,061
Location
Ludington, MI
Get another gunsmith!
As Marcus stated it is tough if not impossible to inlay on a blued part. Perhaps something small but any flush borders would be a real pain.
The other thing is you DON'T want your gunsmith do the "polishing". When you are finished with any inlays or engraving you should have the finish desired on the metal. Handing it over to a hack will result in rounded corners and polished out inlays and engraving.
Gold will withstand any bluing salts that I am aware of. The is the beauty of gold. It pretty much resists anything and it is why it is used in high corrosive areas for electrical contacts and such.
 

Tim Wells

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
1,331
Location
Dallas, Georgia
Rex is a gunsmith since childhood practically so he'd be the guy to make that comment mean a lot. Sounds like that guys gunsmith isn't used to working on engraved guns and probably means well but is obviously misinformed.
 

fegarex

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
2,061
Location
Ludington, MI
It's that British accent in those posts Marcus...
:)
Like Tim says this guy may mean well. I'm guessing he has dealt with brass or aluminum in bluing salts.
 

DARNEW

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
82
Is there a good book that I can purchase that will take me through all the steps of inlaying. What kind of stoning are you refering too? I thought that this guy was wrong but I thought I would ask before I told him not to polish after I cut. Iam cutting some auto slides for him and I mentioned about doing some gold inlay for myself. Thats when he said to give him the slide after I cut it and inlay the gold so he could polish and blue it for me. Thanks for all of your input and you all have a very safe and happy X-Mas and new year.
Doug
 

Marcus Hunt

~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
1,799
Location
The Oxfordshire Cotswolds, England
Hi Doug, I hope your having a good Xmas but now I'm going to ask you to reverse things. Rather than us telling you how to do it, why don't you tell us the stages that you think you'd use ? Then we can guide you rather than 'spoon feed' you info. The reason for this is to make you think and, if you are taking on someone's commission (or even doing a 'real job' for yourself) you shouldn't really be coming to a forum and asking 'how to do it'. Really you should be well practiced and confident enough in your abilities before you start even thinking about tackling a 'real' job, even if it is only for yourself.

Make your mistakes on practice plates and then ask for any advice/critique is the way I'd go in the first instance. If you just go straight in and try inlaying a slide chances are you'll bugger it up and a) not only does this add unnecessary expense but, b) you'll be disappointed with your results in the near future when you're better equiped skills wise to deal with such a project.

I don't mean to sound harsh but I'm trying to help you gather the experience so that you learn through your own experience as well as ours. I don't know how friendly you are with your gunsmith but how about trying this as an experiment. Polish, engrave and undercut a practice plate for inlaying (just as you would a slide). Then get your gunsmith to do what he would've done to the slide i.e. polish and blue it, and then inlay it and let us see your results. It would be a great learning experience for you and you'll have no real worries if it goes horrendously wrong but try it as if it was a real job you were working on.

That's your homework for now, have a good Christmas!
 

Tom Curran

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
451
Location
upstate New York
Marcus, I like your approach to the situation. I like to make a practice piece that I can be proud of if it works out, or toss if it doesn't. In other words, I don't have a lot invested in the piece, so I am not nervous about messing it up. This way, I can concentrate on technique without the distracting fear of ruining someone else's prized possession.

I ALWAYS do a practice piece before I tackle the real job. This practice helps in many ways:

1) you attune your mind to the task ahead
2) your hands learn 'why' and 'how' to do the work
3) you make tools to do the work, you will have them all in order when you do the real job
4) the practice piece can become a beautiful object on its own, for sale or for study

5) in Doug's case, the gunsmith will have an opportunity to learn on a practice piece.
 

DARNEW

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
82
wow Marcus, I think you misunderstud the question. I was not asking how to inlay. That I can figure ouy my self. I was asking about the process of proper preperation and finish to a gun. This guy is not my gun smith as you say. I am only engraving some slides for him and I mentioned doing some gold inlay some day. I guess I should look some where else with gun smith questions.
 

dclevinger

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2006
Messages
267
Location
Arvada, CO
Doug,
There are quite of few of us that have experience in gunsmithing as well as engraving. The part should be polished to a 320 or 400 grit, the gold is inlayed and the the part re-polished. It is then blued or color cased.

Marcus read your question the same way that most of us did and he offered you very good advice. Was your first sentence not "What are the steps for inlaying gold?" ?

David
 

Tom Curran

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
451
Location
upstate New York
One needs to format their words carefully on the keyboard, as inflection of the voice and body language are not available yet on line. I have often written, then re-written because my words didn't get the message across properly. I ALWAYS proof read my posts at least once before hitting the 'send' button. And thank god for the 'edit' button, for once the words are posted, I often find myself saying "That's not what I want to say!"

Happy New Year, everyone!

Tom
 

Mack

Elite Cafe Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2008
Messages
290
Location
Florida
Boy, you are not kidding Tom, I do it all the time. Type it and read it, and re read it, and then post it and say, that is not the way I meant it, and have to edit it again. Mack
 

Sponsors

Top