Wire Inlay

J

John L

Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
1,330
Does anyone know of a tutorial for inlaying wire....ala Moran..into wood handles? Thanks
 
One of Bill Moran's videos put out by the ABS shows how to inlay silver into a handle.
 
There's a guy named Alan Eldridge or something like that who makes a video. That's what I learned from. Hopefully someone here has contact information.

If need be I can call a friend in NY who may have it.
 
i think alan eldridge is in the process of making a new instructional video through center cross.you can check the website for more info.

Center Cross
 
You can always go to the Moran Hammer-in ,in Fredrick,MD in the end of September, and learn it from Bill Moran himself.It looks harder than it is.Practice is the key.
 
I mostly do "line drawings" on little maple "plaques" with rough edges and such. Birds, flowers, etc. While I agree with Stacy that it isn't a "high art" difficulty, it does take attention to chiseling the lines in smooth and proper depth. It can get more advanced blending lines and such by tapering one line against another so there aren't abrupt ends showing and such. I enjoy it.

I've seen really elaborate inlays in two and three colors of wire and several thicknesses done on boxes and such that blow away even the great stuff we see on some knives.

It's easy to do ugly, but, like Stacy says, it's definitely a practice-improved technique. I've seen as much done poorly as I've seen done well.
 
By the way, it isn't really "wire", but flat strip that these goldsmith-types like Shakudo and Stacy call "bezel wire".
 
One thing to consider on doing wire inlays.

Before you start inserting the wire, Take a piece of 60 grit sandpaper and fold it between your fingers. Grab the bezel with the sandpaper and grip it tight. Slide the bezel through the paper like your wiping the oil off a dipstick. This will give the bezel some "teeth" to help hold it in place one you wet the wood a bit to swell in around the bezel.

One bad thing about wire inlay is environmental changes. I sent an inlayed piece out West and the wood shrank to the point that the wire could be felt sticking up from the wood. It was clean as a whistle out here in the humid Va weather.
 
Mark, can you apply some super glue to the wire after it's in, to help keep it in the wood? I know the old masters didn't do this, but they probably didn't use TIG's and epoxies either.
 
I've done a little wire inlay on koa and it's held up great. One was a piece I made into a keychain for my wife and it's been through all extremes of temperature for the last 5 years, without any treatment, and it's been fine! :eek: Koa seems to be pretty stable, though, compared to the maple that's more commonly used.

Fitzo, do you know of an online gallery or anywhere else for finding lots of different examples of wire inlay? I tried looking a few times and wasn't finding much. It's use is very limited in knives and I don't want my inlay to end up looking like a copy of Hendrickson's stuff, so I'd like to see how craftsman not involved in knifemaking use it to gain some inspiration...
 
Robert,

I use a 50/50 mix of carpenters glue and water. Apply liberally to swell the wood. let dry and sand smooth.

I know most have seen this before , but here's a hawk handle I did a while back.

attachment.php
 
Steve, everything I have found has been catch-as-catch can, here and there spread real thin on the internet. Blacpowder rifles, boxes, wooden plates, knives, pendants, etc. I had a nice foto file I'd share but it was lost in a computer crash.

I look to inspiration from line art, simple drawings I can outline, and engraving scroll.

Mark, thanks. I enjoyed seeing that again just as much as the first time, maybe more! :)
 
Mark, that's really cool! Hendrickson has done some interesting things like that, but then inlaying different wood in the middle (there's one with autumn leaves or something I'm thinking of) that is out of this world. I like that snake, very original! My search for wire inlay on Google has yielded mainly the knives I've already seen or metal in metal inlay and that type of thing. :grumpy:

Like Fitzo said, wire inlay is pretty easy, unless you want it to look really nice! :D The nice stuff often is in the details, like using round wire to "cap off" the ends of the wires and give a nice, clean rounded look. Those details are what kill you, though, getting them just right. I recently bought some maple specifically to play with inlay more, but now all my drawings are coming up looking like ripoffs, so I need some new inspiration (and some knives with bigger handles for that matter!).
 
Check out firearms collection books such as
"The Illustrated Book of Guns and Rifles"
"The Illustrated Book of Pistols"
both by Frederick Wilkinson:

examples:
pg-95.jpg

pistol-001.jpg
 
Your best option is to look to gunsmiths. I'd say that's where the bulk of and among the best wire inlay artists are at. In fact the majority I've seen are being done specifically on Kentucky (Still dunno why they aren't called Pennsyvlania, since most of em were made in PA) long rifles. I attended a seminar at Dixon's Gunmakers fair last year on wire inlays, it was pretty informative, but obviously an overview given the short time frame. If you are in the area, and have the time I'd recommend going, I was blown away by many master examples of carving, engraving and silver inlays.

http://dixonmuzzleloading.com/index.php?section=gunmakersfair

-MJ
 
Thanks for the heads-up. I'm not a gun guy at all, so the world of guns is total mystery to me. Those are fantastic examples! :eek:
 
I did some more searching, and something that kept popping up was Alan Eldridge's name. Not only because of the video, but that he was selling a starting 'kit' for $50. Most of these posts were circa 2003, so he may no longer be doing it, or the cost could have gone up. Instead of posting his personal info and being rude(which may have changed as well), I'd say he can be contacted thru Center Cross which I already referenced. Good luck, -MJ
 
At least three years ago I purchased Alan's starter kit. It is a starter kit with just enough to get started and practice a little along with a video I've long forgotten. It's one of those deals you see once and don't really need to see again but it sure helps the first time. It's worth the money. You've got to call this guy. He is a gas to talk to on the phone - if you can get a word in edge wise. He is a lay preacher and talks fast and often.

One other thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the flat wire will almost always come annealed. You might want to run it back and forth over an edge a bit to work harden the material so it taps into the groove you cut a little more evenly.
 
Tracy, if you have only dealt with the annealed stuff (dead soft), it is a true joy to work with "half hard" or fully hardened sterling or fine bezel wire. It stays very nicely straight in the channels when you tap it in. When one gets to a curve, you heat it briefly with a tiny butane torch or even a cigaret lighter and make your bend. It gives so much better control that I quit using the soft stuff.

I got some from Hoover and Strong in NY and they had both reasonable price and a decent size selection. There's a place called Superpure Metals in NJ that has a better size selection but at a substtantially higher price.
 
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