What ways can a knifemaker incorporate silver

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I highly recommend Joe Keeslar's videos.

 

[Smithy]

Here is a boot knife I made 30+ years ago. The guard is fabricated from SS and inlaid with individually cut turquoise. Teddy

 

[Dan Pierson]

Joe Keesler also sells a silver wire inlay kit with basic tools. The wire is called "bezel wire" by
jewelers: around .015x.100 inch flat wire. Jay Henderson says that they're now using cut down
X-acto blades for the tools.

If you're considering sterling as opposed to fine silver you might also want to look at Argentium.
It's a new alloy about the same purity as sterling but using germanium; it is whiter and resists
lots of tarnish and scaling.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

You can also do "silver pegging" or "pique" work by drilling holes in a pattern and inserting silver wire into the holes, then finishing flush. It's easier than the wire inlay and looks more distinctive in my opinion.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

You can also do "silver pegging" or "pique" work by drilling holes in a pattern and inserting silver wire into the holes, then finishing flush. It's easier than the wire inlay and looks more distinctive in my opinion.

Good idea. I believe I've seen Andy do that in the past with phenolic pin stock. Very pretty in patterns. I believe there are examples of the idea in this very thread too.

 

[jdm61]

Andy, the wire for inlay is generally 99.999 fine silver, not sterling. Rio Grande has it as does Hagstoz and Sons in Philadelphia that Bill Moran recommended to me a number of years back. You should drop Joe Keeslar a line and see if he still sells the inlay starter oil with the wire, chisels with handles and snips. I think that the style of knives that yo make would lend themselves well to silver wire.

 

[jdm61]

I have been told that pinning using nickel/German silver pins was a way that Bill Moran used to hide some pins he was using a mechanical fasteners on some knives. Even the big peened pins on his full tang blades were made to fit into the pattern.

You can also do "silver pegging" or "pique" work by drilling holes in a pattern and inserting silver wire into the holes, then finishing flush. It's easier than the wire inlay and looks more distinctive in my opinion.

 

[Fiddleback]

My apologies Andy, I seem to have hijacked your thread.

Man, never worry about that in my threads. Lets all just learn to make better knives.

How about what the Argentinian boys do with silver?

Luis Chavez silver handle for huge criollo blade. WIP (posted by Manuel Quiroga G.)

Wow. Every time I read this thread I feel like less and less of a knifemaker.

You can also do "silver pegging" or "pique" work by drilling holes in a pattern and inserting silver wire into the holes, then finishing flush. It's easier than the wire inlay and looks more distinctive in my opinion.

I do a bit of this with phenolic pins.

Andy, the wire for inlay is generally 99.999 fine silver, not sterling. Rio Grande has it as does Hagstoz and Sons in Philadelphia that Bill Moran recommended to me a number of years back. You should drop Joe Keeslar a line and see if he still sells the inlay starter oil with the wire, chisels with handles and snips. I think that the style of knives that yo make would lend themselves well to silver wire.

Thanks. We had a class on wire inlay at a GA guild meeting. It was fun looking. My handles curve a lot, and it seemed like a tough thing to get the flat wire to follow those curves. I could be wrong though.

 

[jdm61]

Thanks. We had a class on wire inlay at a GA guild meeting. It was fun looking. My handles curve a lot, and it seemed like a tough thing to get the flat wire to follow those curves. I could be wrong though.

From what I have been told by Mssrs. Moran, Hendrickson, Keeslar and others, it is less about the shape of the handle and more about the wood that you use. People use curly maple not only for historical reasons, but also because you can cut and inlay across the grain without it messing up in some way.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Thanks. We had a class on wire inlay at a GA guild meeting. It was fun looking. My handles curve a lot, and it seemed like a tough thing to get the flat wire to follow those curves. I could be wrong though.

Actually, you would be surprised how easily it goes around curves. I have a hawk that Bill Moran forged and I finished the handle after his death. I used his own curly maple and wire. The pattern is his "berry vine" style with little bunches of three berries at the end of each side branch. The vine winds round the hawk handle several times as it goes from butt to near the poll. Using the right width wire is key here. Too wide and it will obviously not curve. IIRC, it was 2mm ( .075") wide and .5mm ( .002") thick. For that job, I also annealed the wire pretty soft.

I'll look for a photo tonight.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

There is PMC silver for those of you that haven't seen this stuff?

http://www.riogrande.com/Category/Glass-Enamels-and-Resins/114/Metal-Clay/5756

Its like working with Playdough, I took a class in in a few years back. My skin way to dry or something? I have to soak them in olive oil to keep get the stuff to stop sticking to my fingers. I made a few silver earrings and a necklace for my my wife. It would be great for embellishment of knives and scabbards and comes in Silver, Gold, Copper & Bronze. You mold your object and then fire it with a hand torch or Kiln.

 

[Hengelo_77]

After fireing up it shrinks a bit, that might give problems.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

After fireing up it shrinks a bit, that might give problems.

It shrinks a few percent. That's the organic binder burning off. I wouldn't use it for a guard, but you could make handle and scabbard embellishments with these metals.