Wire Inlay

[Powderhorn]

I know that you can inlay, copper, gold, and silver fairly easily, how hard is brass to do the same thing. I know that the brass contains copper, and should be able to be annealed to make it soft. I am hoping to get some of you old timers input. I am going to do some key fobs, and don't want to use gold on them, and thought the brass would be a suitable alternate, or am I going to be flogging a dead horse.

 

[ron p. nott]

well Powderhorn ,, you have picked what I think is a difficult job , inlaying brass , which is very hard to do you may need a 10lb. hammer . but any way there is a way to do it . 1 -you can soder silver to the back of the brass or 2- cut a deep cavity for your brass and do a very deep under cut in your channel that you want to put the brass into , but instead of pounding the brass into the cavity you will be pounding the edges of the steel around the brass ..I hope this works for you .. Ron p

 

[Ray Cover]

Like Ron said it is do-able but...........................

My personal opinion would be that the headache and destroyed key fob blanks would cost more than the little bit of gold you would use on a project that size.

It is going to be very difficult to get the brass to seat well. Even annealed as soft as you can get it it is going to be hard and difficult to work with. It is going to work harden instantly (probably before you even get it seated in the channel). You are going to have to used a fairly substantial steel punch and a very heavy hammer with which you will have to beat the living **** out of it.

Let me put this in perspective. If a customer came to me and ask me to bid a job in brass and the same job in gold, the job in brass would cost him three or four times what the gold would.

Unless you have had a whole lot of experience doing inlay I would not even attempt brass.

Oh yes I forgot to add. The base metal you are inlaying in would have to be fairly hard too. un-heat-treated 416 stainless or 4140 gun metal would be too soft to get even a fairly clean job done.

my 2 cents

Ray

 

[Mike Bissell]

Powderhorn - I agree with Ron. For the project you have in mind you will not lose too much if you want to try it, like Ron suggested. If I were to do this, I would switch to pure cooper.

Mike

 

[Ron Smith]

Probably the biggest two factors in inlaying brass would be,1. Your undercutting has to be substantial and if the brass doesn't stick the first time you whack it, forget it. It will curl and resist inlaying. brass is not a good material to use for inlays. I do a lot of multicolored inlays and this has been my experience with it. It isn't worth it.
2. Already suggested is if the metal you are inlaying in is very soft, the brass will be harder than the base metal and yoou will destroy your undercutting trying to get it to stick. I tried sterling on one of these key fob type metals and it was a struggle to get it to hold, so be careful and play with the techniques until you are sure it will be successful, but then it is a crap shoot...........

Another thing: If you are buying your wire at Hobby Lobby, it is coated with something (plastic like) and until you burn that off and reclean the wire, it is even more difficult to inlay.................Ron S

 

[John B.]

Hi Powderhorn.
You did not say if you are planning on doing line work inlay or something like an animal.
If it's an animal or flower you can create a cavity and solder it in if you want the brass flush.
If you want it raised, just solder it on as is done on many Western buckles etc.
This will work on steel, nickle or copper key fobs but not on guns, of course.
Line work might work with oversize wire laid into the channel and attached with paste solder.
The wire could then be flushed down or left proud much like the border edges soldered on to Western pieces.
But as the others have said, it would be lot of work for something of this sort unless it's done for a special reason.
Best of luck with it, just my thoughts, John B.

 

[Powderhorn]

John b, Ray, Mike, Ron, Ron P;
Thanks for the info, you did one of those BIG PIN JOB on the bright idea balloon. I was unsure of it from the start. It was going to be put into some of the GRS Stainless fobs. Thank you for help.

 

[John B.]

Hi Powderhorn.
Sorry, didn't mean to burst any of your bubbles!
You can do this, but soldering stainless can be a problem.
It's very easy to make key fobs out of other materials, copper, nickle or carbon steel.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Have fun, give it a go and post your results.

John B.