Troy G
Elite Cafe Member
Wow Brian truly stunning work! your design is absolutely perfect!!
Just got this back from Turnbulls. Kind of a different project, I don't typically do handguns nor mess with doing grip or stockwork. In any case, the customer wanted rubies and shell inlay and a knife to make a set, so this is what I came up with.
A close up of some shading.......perhaps overshading?
Grips are ivory, with abalone inlay and bezel set rubies
Shawn, On flat areas I design everything in photoshop and the final draft in painter. On areas that have a compound curve I draw straight on the metal.
Sam, Thanks. I don't often get that much room to just go wild with scrollwork, usually there is a scene of some sorts in any area of size. So it was kind of fun to just let it flow on out there.
monk, yeah I kind of had to make that up on my own. I'll just say my original idea failed miserably. However, what worked well was to take gold tube, taper one end, bezel set the stone into the other. Then drill the ivory a few thousandths undersized of the diameter of the gold tube. Put a dab of epoxy in the hole and then with a copper punch tap the setting into the ivory. Wipe any stray epoxy and you are good to go. I think the press fit would hold them as it does take some force to drive them in, but the epoxy adds some peace of mind. Repeat 40 times.