Inlay- To undercut or upset.

[jerrywh]

Thanks for the tips Sam.

 

[Southern Custom]

Scott you are certainly right about displacement bring the more correct term. I suppose I was rather "upset" with some inlay issue or another at the time I posted.

 

[Christopher Malouf]

A lot of displacement can and most likely lead to upset....

I use 70 and 80 degree V chisels for the vines with wire drawn down to 0.15mm with the thickest at 0.23mm.

This Python is extremely soft and soft is a must-have for small gold work because a narrow chisel and tiny undercutting point will break quickly.

24k gold grabs easy so the displacement only needs to be raised enough to sand back without scalloping the gold and as long as the displaced metal isn't pushed up above the surrounding surface, the lines will not be jagged or open up along the edges.

I use a steel punch to force the gold in (brass doesn't have enough crushing force), then scrape excess gold with a brass chisel.

These pics were posted on Instagram a few weeks ago so I'm a little further along now.....

 

[Southern Custom]

Thanks for this Chris. There are as many small variations on inlay techniques as there are engravers and it's nice to see and learn them. I've been using displacement on the last sections of the SAA I'm working on and the metal is so soft that it doesn't raise the edge of the wall that much. I also have been using a steel punch. You just have to be careful not to over whack it lest you end up with dents you didn't expect. I learned that the hard way.