A young knifemaker's first attempt at wire inlay!

zumafa

zumafa

Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
1
This is a little "practice run" I did this past week, took about 11 hrs., starting with a raw piece of mahogany and an old hacksaw blade for a "notcher." I used .010" sterling wire, dead soft. What fun!
Here's how I did it, after reading the few tutorials online like Tracy Mickley's: http://www.mickleyknives.com/html/page_22.html
First I drew it out on paper, made up my mind about the final image, then drew it freehand on the wood with a ballpoint pen, using the paper as a reference. I made a hacksaw blade tool about 1.3 mm wide and notched it in little by little. I used a simple pair of scissors to cut the wire, and a small-faced hammer to pound it in. Then of course I sanded it all down and stained the wood.
DSC02320.jpg

DSC02318.jpg

DSC02315.jpg







This is the first post I've made on bladeforums, although I have followed you guys' threads for a few months now. I'm a 22 year old knifemaker, originally from Massachusetts, now living full-time on a small farm near Pondicherry, South India. I first started taking bladesmithing classes a few years ago from a knifemaker in MA, and have been making knives as much as I can ever since. I'm based out of a small farm where we grow everything we eat, including rice, yams, and papayas, among many other things. It takes a half hour to get to an internet source here, so I don't get on the internet too often. This past year I've been building up my blacksmithing workshop, which is a simple thatched-roof structure with a dirt floor where I do all my work.

I have really appreciated the input of all you bladesmiths that take the time to share techniques and give feedback, and I look forward to talking knives here on bladeforums in the future!
-Lowell Harrison-Schmidt
 
Grate work! I saw an demo at a ga guild meting. He used an old Bowling ball with about a 5" flat spot cut in it. He then mounted a 4" drill press vise (harbor fright $10) on the flat spot. he put the bowling ball on a old lawnmower tire. The tire holds the ball steady but he was able to move it to any direction or angel while doing his inlay. Again grate work thank you for sharing
 
Welcome.
Nice job on the tree of life theme.


On future projects, use a small flat file ( #2 barrette works well) and taper the end of the pieces that merge into another strip...as where a branch or spiral separates.
Set the long strips first and then cut the lines for the branches. In cutting the lines, start at the end of the branch, and work back into the main strips. The tapered end on the branch wire will make the branch strip flow out of the main strip almost invisibly. Tapering the terminal end of a branch wire makes it not end so bluntly.
Also, cutting the wire strips at a slight angle, about 60-70 degrees ( top to bottom), makes insertion of the strip easier to start. On branches, this will cause the tip end to push tighter against the main strip it merges with. On the ends of any wire, it makes the end of the cut line disappear completely.

Other effects that greatly enhance the eye-appeal of inlay are:
Use two or three different thickness of flat wire for the lines. Start with the thicker at the base, and go to thinner as you progress toward the ends. Do side shoots/spirals in the next size down from the main wire they diverge from.

Make some of the branch tips end in a snake's tongue split.

Drill a hole, and drive in a piece of round silver wire at the end of a spiral. Vary the round wire size a bit ,say 16,18,20 gauge.

Run a very short strip of wire off a branch , and drill a group of three holes at the end. Use round wire in the holes to simulate leaves. You can do this at the end of any branch,too.
One of the old books to teach women charm said,"A little lipstick makes a girl look like a woman....too much makes a woman look cheap. ", so don't add too many leaves, a few go a long way. Brass or gold round wire make great leaves.

On a flowing spiral motif, with lots of short spiral off-shoots, make it into a grapevine. Add the short off-shoot as with the leaves mentioned above, but make it into a grape cluster. Using brass or gold wire for the grapes make for more contrast. Reduce the wire gauge as the grapes get toward the end of the cluster.

These simple changes in wire size and taper perspective make a huge difference in the look of inlay. The work quality can be the same, but the look will be much more detailed.

For a good experiment -
Draw a road through the desert with cactus along it. Draw two parallel lines and draw four same size cactus, and put some same size squiggles to represent the sand....Now, everyone will recognize that it is a picture of a road through the desert.
Next, draw the two lines as tapering toward the background, and draw the cactus in diminishing size, and make the front squiggles bolder than the farther away squiggles....and it looks like a 3-D picture of a road through the desert. No other differences but perspective , and look at the change.
 
dogwood dan said:
Grate work! I saw an demo at a ga guild meting. He used an old Bowling ball with about a 5" flat spot cut in it. He then mounted a 4" drill press vise (harbor fright $10) on the flat spot. he put the bowling ball on a old lawnmower tire. The tire holds the ball steady but he was able to move it to any direction or angel while doing his inlay. Again grate work thank you for sharing
Click to expand...

Now THAT is a nifty idea!
 
The demo I saw he used a hack saw to cut the Bolingball. if you screw a square peace of ply wood with it's side equal to the diameter of the bowling ball it stable enuf to run threw a band saw. Use fine teeth, slow feed rate and keep fingers out of the path of the blade
 
The original post is from 2007 and Lowell's last activity was in 2008. Thanks for the info Stacy, I bookmarked it for future reference. :thumbup:
 
Wow, as a mod, I normally check that, but it slipped past me. Wonder how the OP is doing now?
Thanks for keeping me up to date.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top