Help, please: inlay question

diane b · Jul 31, 2009

I want to inlay a piece of moku me (shape of a wire) that will serve as a border, into a silver disc (haven't decided if the disc will be sterling or fine silver). The silver disc will be about 1 1/2 inches or about 3 1/2 centimeters in diameter. I want to dome the disc to give it a slight curvature. The end product will be a bolo tie. Here is my question: do I inlay first and then dome the disc or dome the disc first and then inlay? I appreciate any advice. Thanks for looking at this.
Diane B.

Weldon47 · Jul 31, 2009

Hi Diane,

How hard is the mokume compared to the silver & just curious, have you done inlay before? Something else to consider is: how thick is the silver disc? Most of the time inlay is done by placing a softer material into a harder one, however harder into softer or hard into hard (as in steel into steel) can also be done but the difficulty increases. It may be that you could handle it better by cutting a channel for the mokume and fixing it in by soldering rather than as an actual inlay.
Not trying to tell you that it can't be done, just a couple of suggestions & food for thought!

Weldon

diane b · Jul 31, 2009

Dear Weldon,
Thank you so much for your suggestions. The mokume is made of layers of copper and brass. If I set it into sterling and the mokume is well annealed I think the sterling will be harder. I'm not so sure about the fine silver - it may be softer. I've taken Tira's beginning engraving class at GRS and Lee Griffith's intermediate engraving also at GRS. We did inlay in both classes - a bit more in Lee's class where Lee did cover the procedure for inlaying a harder material into a softer material, although I haven't actually done it.. I also thought about soldering the mokume into a channel in the silver, but would really like to try it with the inlay. The thing I was concerned about was that if I inlay first into a flat disc and then dome the disc, will that cause the inlay to pop out of the channel? It would certainly be easier to inlay into a flat disc than a domed disc, but if the inlay pops out when I dome the disc, I've just wasted a lot of time and will have to do the inlay all over again. Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas with me. I really appreciate it. Thank you
Diane B.

Weldon47 · Jul 31, 2009

Diane,

You could try it and see what happens....lots of stuff is learned that way! If the inlay is close to the edge, I believe that area would move the least when doming. The inlay popping out is a concern so I would set it in as securely on this project.

WL

diane b · Jul 31, 2009

thank you weldon,
I'll keep you posted on what happened. Thanks
Diane B

jetta77 · Jul 31, 2009

wow... amazing things can happen.

Roger B · Jul 31, 2009

Dianne,

As my first piece of inlay I made a bangle with copper inlay around the edges. All the cutting was done while the metal was flat and the copper inlaid also when flat.

Now bearing in mind that the cuts down the sides got longer when the bangle was rounded up and the copper remained the same length it worked out pretty well. You won't be doming your piece as much as the bangle was bent but you will still need to make sure that you have a decent amount of undercutting to force the wire into.

All the best,
Roger

diane b · Aug 1, 2009

Dear Roger,
Thank you for your suggestion and relating your experience. I will make sure I have a good, deep undercut in the channel before I inlay. Thank you
Diane B

DanM · Aug 4, 2009

The mokume will be harder than sterling and fine silver.There is also a good possibility of the mokume work hardening faster than the sterling when inlaying.I would dome the silver first ,set the dome into pitch and then inlay the mokume.

John Cole · Aug 4, 2009

You might also think about setting the dished silver into thermo loc instead of pitch. You can fill the interior and also be able to chuck it up in a vise to make cutting and setting the inlay easier. You also should have less issues releasing from the therom loc than from pitch. Just a thought, haven't actually tried it myself

John C.

KCSteve · Aug 4, 2009

That is an advantage of ThermoLoc - you can make a 'mushroom' on the underside of the domed silver (maybe a couple of tabs coming over the edge if they won't be in the way) and then just use the 'stalk' to hold it in the vise.

diane b · Aug 4, 2009

Dear Dan,
Thanks for your input. I think I will try a test strip first and see what happens. I may have to use the procedure for setting a harder material into a softer material. Good suggestions. Thank you.

Dear John and Steve,
Great idea. I have some thermo loc and haven't used it yet. Looks like this project will lead me to try all sorts of things I haven't done yet. Thank you for your suggestions.

Diane B

Help, please: inlay question

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