silver wire inlay

[Kevin]

This is a knife I forged and did some silver inlay in the handle. Its the first time I have worked inlay on a knife (though I practiced on pieces of wood beforehand). There are a lot of mistakes and its really nothing like as good as some of the pros can do.....but its another skill to learn. I like the effect and hope to include it in more of my work later on.
The technique is quite old and was used a lot on some of the fancy blackpowder gun stocks.


This knife by the way is a give away...another birthday present.

http://www.coutelcutlery.com/photogallery/photo32767/silver%20inlay.jpg

Here is another photo, in black and white and close up.

http://www.coutelcutlery.com/photogallery/photo32767/black%20and%20white.jpg

[Chux]

Mistakes or not someone is going to have a very good birthday.

Looks more than fine to me. Nice work.

[Trond]

For me? :rolleyes: Kevin it is too much really :D

Very nice, how did you do the inlays? did you carve and fill the carving with the silver? I havent seene one with innlays close up before, therefore i have no clue on how it is done.

[Kevin]

Trond......

The wire is pure silver, and it is flat not round....more like a ribbon and can be bought from jewellery supplies.

The idea is to cut the pattern into the wood , but the wood is pushed apart rather than cut, as it has to close up on itself afterwards.

I made a small chisel from a small hacksaw blade, and use this to push down on the pattern, opening it up, and to the depth of the wire . The wire is inserted and gently hammered into the gap.
When everything is in place, the wire should be sticking slightly proud of the wood. The handle then needs to be wetted.

I used water based dye and some wood glue mixed together. I then used a soldering iron and gently heat the silver inlay....As the inlay heats, the wood shrinks and closes up on the inlay.
Then sand the inlay level with the wood, oil and polish.

The hardest part I found was keeping the lines straight , as the wires is so thin it has a tendency to go a bit wiggly.....The curves were not easy, then matching it all in together...but I think the next one will be easier and better.

The wood is important. This technique doesnt work to well on hard woods...as they have to have the ability to wet and shrink.
Maple is a good choice.

The wire is inserted well into the wood and the older the wood gets, it should get even tighter.




:)

[Trond]

Thanks Kevin, i see, no short cuts here either :( allways so much work to get something that looks good.
I though maybe you had used a round wire and just hammered into the wood, but no, lots and lots of work :)

[ugug]

ahh Kev

good work as always.. and it inspires me to try a silver inlay in a wooden sheath :biggthump

Trond.. i can imagine what you were thinking.. can i make ug hammer it for an hour with no luck and then i'll use a power hammer to just bash the ******* in ten seconds flat :twak: :noggin: :)

cheers

ug

[Trond]

ahh Kev



Trond.. i can imagine what you were thinking.. can i make ug hammer it for an hour with no luck and then i'll use a power hammer to just bash the ******* in ten seconds flat :twak: :noggin: :)

cheers

ug
Yup :biggthump

[narsil]

More great work Kevin :) , you're certainly churning them out at a fair old rate at the moment. ;)

I agree that one of the nice things about knifemaking is the whole range of interesting little skills you can try out and pick up along the way.

[stonehard]

Nice knife Kevin.
I was thinking about inlaying when someone asked about it a while back (might have been you) at the time I noticed that dremmel do a router attachment that has cutting tools as small as 1.5 mill I dont know if it will work for inlay but I know it works for fretting guitars and such. I wonder if they make a very small dovetail cutter then you could bash the silver into the groove and it would expand and never fall out.

[narsil]

I have considered doing wider inlays a bit like marquetry, but with silver instead of wood, by carving a channel and gluing a strip of silver sheet, cut to size into it, then sanding flush. But I haven't tried it yet. I reckon it would be tricky but possible.

[Kevin]

......I noticed that dremmel do a router attachment that has cutting tools as small as 1.5 mill I dont know if it will work for inlay but I know it works for fretting guitars and such. I wonder if they make a very small dovetail cutter then you could bash the silver into the groove and it would expand and never fall out.

There is a technique for inlaying silver and gold wire into steel....I have seen examples in the museums in London .... medieval seax's.
I think a sort of dovetail was channeled into the steel then round wire hammered in which expanded.

The techinique I used works on the principle that the wood isnt cut away,but pried open with a small chisel..... then the water expands the wood and tightens it against the wire..its very secure and permanent...Choice of wood is important.
It really isnt difficult to do, unless you tend to be all fingers and thumbs like me.

[Darren]

Hi Kevin: Looks great for the first try, sounds like you did it properly as well. It's important to have several size chisels in width the smaller ones being used as the curve gets tighter. Another little trick is to file one edge of the ribbon, the edge that will go into the wood, this not only creates a nice sharp edge that will go into the wood easier but the filed edge will grab the wood to make it even more permanent. You did a great job !! I haven't done this in years, you have inspired me to give it a go again.
Darren

[Kevin]

Thanks Darren. Its tips like that that help.

[narsil]

ahhh...does that mean that the wire is pushed into the wood edge first? i hadn't realised that.

[Kevin]

ahhh...does that mean that the wire is pushed into the wood edge first? i hadn't realised that.

Yes...its very thin..about .010 , and mine is about 1/8 inch wide...a bit to wide really...it cound be narrower as that would make insertion a bit easier.

[Wrangler]

Hi Kevin,

not the nice inlay as a single eyecatcher but the whole knife is great piece of craftsmanship! :biggthump
I like the shape of this fuller very much! :approve:

Cheers,
Wolfgang :biggthump

[Kevin]

Hi Kevin,

not the nice inlay as a single eyecatcher but the whole knife is great piece of craftsmanship! :biggthump
I like the shape of this fuller very much! :approve:

Cheers,
Wolfgang :biggthump

Thanks Wolfgang.

I like this shape very much too...In fact, I made a pattern in steel so I can duplicate it...I dont usualy make a series of knives, but I may make an exception with this one.