Titanium ring inlay problem

[davidshe]

My first attempt at gold inlay into a titanium ring. The problem is that I drew the wire down a bit too thin and in a few spots it left some small indentations in the gold. Do I need to dig it all out and start over or can the indentations be filled by just partially digging out those spots and adding a bit of gold? I was also wondering if I should add a small border inside the gold oval since I already added one outside the oval. I would appreciate your input. Here are a couple pics of the ring...

 

[atexascowboy2011]

Me ? I'd try filling it in if 24kt, if not strip it out and replace it. So you're losing $20 worth of gold. What's your rep worth ?

 

[davidshe]

Thanks for your reply. This ring is a practice ring for myself. My question was more about exactly HOW might be the best way to fill in the small low spots and less about protecting my reputation.

 

[Willem Parel]

There is a way to inlay gold with small golden balls ( don't know the right term in Englisch), it's invented by Andy Gonzales ( also here on the forum) maybe this will be a solution to fix this.
I will try to find his formula or maybe Andy can jump in and help you out.

 

[Willem Parel]

Found it for you David, I think this is a usable method and a unique method for your problem, thanks to Andy Gonzalis :clapping:

http://www.engraverscafe.com/showthread.php?11022-Unique-inlay-technique...&highlight=Gold+inlay

 

[Gemsetterchris]

Personally, a ring around the inside edge would look better & ehannce the inlay more. Shame the inlay didn't go first time but nevertheless hope you find a cure.

 

[davidshe]

Thank you Willem, that is quite an interesting way to inlay gold. I will learn from that. And thanks Gemsetterchris for your opinion. I agree and plan to add that inside cut to the oval once I fix the gold.

 

[jerrywh]

I have put gold inlays in gold inlays a lot of times without any trouble. The trick is to handle a piece of gold that small. I would just put in a small section. I basically did it the way previously described.

 

[GTJC460]

Dont forget to shade your knots. A little bit of light shading at the over/unders makes a world of difference

 

[davidshe]

Thanks Jerry and Bert. And yes, I do plan on shading those knots. I agree it adds a lot of depth.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

Time is money, you could repair each indentation which will take you for ever or you could just replace the gold, having the choice I would choose the second option. If your gold wire is just a little too small do not forget that you can induce the gold too spray, instead of pressing evenly the gold leave some space between each push, the excess of gold (where it was not press) will "spray" to fill up the space, of course the gold need to be well anchored at the point it was push or it will just popup when you hammer it.
Good luck

 

[davidshe]

Thank you Thierry for your input. What I decided was to fix some of the indentations just for practice and then redo the entire oval after that. I learned a lot from this first one and hopefully won't repeat the mistakes I made.

 

[SamW]

I fill such a defect by digging out the small area, punching the gold either side back a bit so that when I put in new wire there will be sufficient metal at the joining ends to keep from duplicating the problem I am solving. As long as undercuts are sufficient there should be no problem but if it doesn't work I then pull it all and use a slightly larger wire. As to losing the pulled gold, I save all the scrap pieces, and when there is enough I melt it into a blob, hammer it flat to about .035 inches, cut small strips about .035 wide and run through the draw plate for use again.

 

[davidshe]

Thanks Sam! I did end up doing something just like that but I need to be more careful about saving those gold scraps. Great input, thanks.

 

[LVVP]

I fill such a defect by digging out the small area, punching the gold either side back a bit so that when I put in new wire there will be sufficient metal at the joining ends to keep from duplicating the problem I am solving. As long as undercuts are sufficient there should be no problem but if it doesn't work I then pull it all and use a slightly larger wire. As to losing the pulled gold, I save all the scrap pieces, and when there is enough I melt it into a blob, hammer it flat to about .035 inches, cut small strips about .035 wide and run through the draw plate for use again.

SamW,
You are the best, thank you very much