Posted by Chris Ray on June 28, 1998 at 10:39:18:

In Reply to: Topic: I need information on metal enlay posted by Nicole on June 28, 1998 at 08:22:06:

Inlay is a process that requires some degree of skill, mainly in the area of precision cutting and careful matching of secondary materials. There's no way I could cover the subject in detail using this format but would suggest finding some books on the subject.

This is the sort of thing that one could learn the basics of from a book. The difficulty of the process isn't so technically involved as it is in acquiring the manual skill to do it. Now there are books written for jewelers that could be very helpful as well as some woodworking books. They are generally well illustrated so you will easily understand the proceedure. Check out Amazon.com for some books to cover this subject.

One proceedure is doing something like the following. If you are going to inlay a soft wire into a piece of metal then you would first engrave or chisel out a groove that defines your design. It's best if the sidewalls of the cut are slightly burred. Lay in your wire then with a blunt chisel-like kind of tool (regrind a small cold chisel for this) follow the wire, hammering it into the groove so that the piece fills out the space. Next you use the same follower tool to fold over the burr which will lock the wire in place.

That was a simplistic explaination of the process but basically that's it with multiple variations, of course. What will most likely happen if you do this the first time is that the work hardening of the wire will probably pull up the trailing section already hammered in place. This is where practice and patience comes into play when acquiring the skill to successfully complete a piece. Try annealing the wire as you work it along the design but try not to overheat the base metal, otherwise your work will warp.

Check out how woodworkers cut out their designs and fit them together for decorative inlay work. Although the wood is normally glued in place for this sort of thing, you might be able to figure out how to join different metals. Silver soldering is the usual method but rivets could work as well if you cut them off flush with the surfaces after countersinking the holes first.

Chris Ray

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