Silver wire inlay work, How ???

[Steve Nuckels]

I really like the wire inlay work, especialy on the "Moran" style knives.  How is it done?  Do you use round stock or "ribbon" & and where can I get it?

Any information would be helpful.

Steve

[theunluckyhunter]

might want to shoot lin rhea an email, i think he started doing some inlay

[Wampus]

Use semi-annealed "half hard" flat sterling wire from 0.008"x0.055" or 0.013" x 0.055" depending on the design.  For the dots you can use pieces .060" round wire and sharpen one end like a little nail.  Hagstoz and Sons carries the wire but I can't find it listed on the website.  You can call to order it.     http://www.hagstoz.com/  

First sand your wood to about 200 grit and then draw your design with pencil and use your chisel to cut the channel along the lines for the wire, one line at a time.  Drag the wire through some rough sand paper to rough it up so it holds in the wood and then tap the wire down into the cut with a small light hammer.  For joining branches in a design, hammer the end of the wire thin where it joins or file the tip to a taper so it blends in smoothly.  At his seminars, Joe Keeslar sells little kits with all the tools except the hammer and enough wire to get started.  He's supposed to be back from France this week.

[theunluckyhunter]

is there anything you can substitute for the silver to practice with?

[Lin Rhea]

Wampus, you must have sit through the same Joe Keeslar tutorials as I did. I've been using the full soft pure silver and really like it. I made my tools from screw drivers, hack saws, etc.

Chris,
       I hav'nt tried anything else, because I use the flat wire. Most all of the copper scraps will be round. I guess you can roll them out flat in a rolling mill and anneal em. Rolling mills are expensive though. So you might want to spend the money on good wire.

      The pure silver is expensive but goes a long way.
                        Lin
 

[Jeremy]

The wire is called bezel wire and is available from jewelry supply places.

 

I started out using the brass bezel wire.  German silver isn't much more expensive than the brass, but it's much harder to work.  The real silver is damned expensive, but works better.

The chisels Wampus spoke of can be made very quickly in different widths from a hacksaw blade.

[cdworks]

WOW    those are some great looking knives! I think i asked this in another thread. Good info!

[Steve Nuckels]

Thank you for the great info and examples!

Can anyone post some pics of chisels used??

Thank you!  Steve

[Jeremy]

I'll see if I can find mine - haven's done any inlayt since building the new shop and moving everything over (still haven't unpacked).

They aren't much to look at though, just about a 3" piece of hacksaw blade where the last 3/16" has been reduced to sharpened chisels of various widths... a bit of tape at the top so I could hold onto them better.