Gold in the makers stamp?

[petah]

A question for Stacy I guess.

How does Bill Bagwell put gold in his makers stamp on his damascus blades?

Do I just clean out the mark and pour in some 18k?

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Or stainless for that matter. Please answer for stainless as well. Are there any other goldsmiths on BF?

 

[Bill DeShivs]

The lettering is undercut with gravers. Gold wire is inserted and flattened with a punch. The surface is cut flush with the blade, and the blade is finished.
You can't pour gold into a cut.

 

[12345678910]

I'm not Stacy, but the jewelry suppliers have liquid inlay or electroplate kits

you can do the same things in color with bake on enamels too

Lets see if i can find some links..nothing specific found...

http://www.riogrande.com/default.aspx

http://www.lacytools.ca/default.aspx

http://www.stuller.com/

edited to add, bill is right, that is the proper way to do it...

 

[deker]

Silly suggestion. Why not ask Mr. Bagwell?

-d

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Thanks Rob, that was to be my post.

 

[petah]

Thanks Bill.

 

[Phil Dwyer]

There's always gold leaf too.

Silly suggestion. Why not ask Mr. Bagwell?

Thanks Rob, that was to be my post.

That's a great idea. How's one go about doing that? He doesn't seem to have a website.

 

[petah]

I have his # but I don't want to bug him...

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

If you want a guess, it is inlaid gold, as Bill deShivs suggested. If you want to know, call Bill Bagwell up and ask him.

Rubbing gold leaf on,using PMC, and some of the other ideas will not work on a knife.

 

[deker]

I have his # but I don't want to bug him...

If there's one thing I've learned in my years of knifemaking, it's that most guys are happy to talk about what they do, all you need to do is ask. Think about the life of a fulltime maker, they probably see very few people on a daily basis, and even fewer who aren't sick of hearing them talk about knives!

The one thing I can tell you for sure is that you'll never know exactly how Mr. Bagwell does this unless you ask him personally.

-d

 

[canid]

deker, if that weren't a bit on the longish side, i'd have to quote that in my signature.

 

[petah]

Honestly I'm all for the gold inlay as Bill said.

I called Bagwell once, I was placing a knife order. I was intimidated a bit. Very nice man though.

 

[Phil Dwyer]

Geesh, who better to call a knifemaker than a former customer!

Oppi Untracht's, Jewelry: Concepts And Technology has quite a section on inlaying metals in metals. Google has the book online. The section, "Metal Inlay: Excavation succeeded by insertion techniques" begins on page 304. Untracht covers engraving in the previous section and precious metal amalgams and gold leaf, etc in other sections of the book.

As a young metalsmithing jewelry making aspirant back in the 70s and 80s I enjoyed Untracht's earlier book, Metal Techniques For Craftsmen: A Basic Manual For Craftsmen on the Methods of Forming and Decorating Metals. It is likely folks will enjoy a gander at any of his works.