gold inlaying

[KSnyder]

All, having never tried but knowing i will (try inlay)in the future i need some advice as to gold inlay. does one need to use pure gold (24k) or what is the break off point as to malleability? Will 18k work? I'm guessing 14k is way too hard to work properly.
What are the thinnest / thickest one could / should use? dimensions? Sam mentions .008 in the overlay technique tutorial.Is that the usual thickness?
Thanks,
Kent

 

[Sam]

Kent: Use only 24k gold. Don't waste your time with lesser karats as it's simply not worth the frustration in trying to inlay them. For overlay .008" works fine for me, but that's for overlay, not inlay. Start with gold wire that fits snugly into a channel as wide as a 37 or 38 flat graver, and cut to a depth so the gold rests about with 50% exposed above the surface. A 37 or 38 is a good size for wire border inlay practice.

 

[Mike Bissell]

Kent - You may want to look at this thread.
http://www.igraver.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62

Mike

 

[KSnyder]

Sam/ Mike,
thanks for the info, i printed it out for my "archives", now gotta work up the guts to try it!
Kent

 

[Sam]

Kent: If you want to try wire borders, you can use copper wire for practice. If you're doing overlays or large inlays you need 24k gold. My advice is to practice with pure gold for everything, but you can get successful borders with dead-soft copper wire if you have to. / ~Sam

 

[msar24]

Kent,

If you can get your hands on some standard solid phone wire it is 24 gauge and fits very nicely into a groove made by a #37 flat graver. Depending on where you live you should be able to get it in any hardware store. You will need to anneal it. Most phone wire comes in 2 or more pairs per cable so even 10 feet of cable wil give you a lot of copper wire to use.

 

[M A Smith]

To KSnyder,
My name is Mark and I am a German born and German trained engraver. And I am somewhat new to these forums. But I must say that I have learned a few things while viewing or observing these forums.
Last summer while working with my son, he had some solder wire he was playing with--the kind you buy at the local hardware store in a small roll --while doing some inlay work he asked me what I was doing so I told him. I began to show him inlay work with the solder wire--its very soft and very maleable, its a perfect material for practice line border inlay work. I hope this is of some benefit to you, but its cheap, and inexpensive to get; again you can find it anywhere, and you don't have to pick it out when you're finished to save it.
M A Smith

 

[KSnyder]

Mr. Smith,/ MSar24, great ideas, I have some very fine solder. We have lots of scrap pieces of copper wire as well. The gold just makes me nervous at this point. gonna start with the throwaway stuff first.
Kent

 

[msar24]

The gold scares me too but I'll have to get some soon. I had a spool of phone wire (500 feet) that someone gave me when I was running a new line at my house. I only used about 100 feet of it and it has 4 pairs in it so I have about 3200 feet of wire to try to inlay.

 

[Mike Bissell]

Kent & Kevin - It's been my experience that if you can inlay cooper then you can certainly inlay gold. On the other hand if you are not successful with cooper then you probably still could do gold. Of all the metals that I can think of gold is the easiest to inlay. Aluminum wire will inlay pretty well too, but who would want that inlaid into a rifle or shotgun. My advise would be to use 24k gold. The amount that you will use up in practicing will be less costly than you think. For any of these metals you should have a good draw plate.
Just my thoughts

Mike

 

[William Grubb]

MSAR24,
Let me know when you get that 3200 ft of copper wire inlaid,I want to see that project. Of course I will be about 240 years old by then ....just kidding of course.