Tutorial on Silver Wire Inlay Part 1
This tutorial should take the mystery out of silver wire inlay for those of you w have never attempted to try it. It is a
lot easier to do than most people realize, and I hope this tutorial will give some of you the confidence that you need to
try your hand at it.
Once your rifle is done to the point of finish sanding it is time to draw the design. With a pencil draw out the design,
take your time with it, if it is not quite right erase it and start all over again. Once you start to
cut into the wood there is no going back, so be sure it is what you want. It is a good idea not to start to inlay the
wire the same day that you do the drawing. When you look at it the next day it may not look as good as you thought. If it
still looks good, start to cut it in, if not change it.
It is very important to have a good variety of gouges and chisels to choose from to stamp, or plunge the design into the
wood. Some of the straight lines can be cut in with a knife, but very few. I prefer to use a straight chisel rather than
a knife. A knife will not crush the wood
back enough to allow the wire to go in without a lot of force. If you try to force the wire in it will bend. Do not
try to cut a circle with a knife.
Now that we have our design, choose a chisel or gouge that matches up to your design and gently tap it into the wood about
3/32 of an inch.
The tools needed for this job are the same chisels and gouges that you need for carving. See CARVING TOOLS TUTORIAL.
I would prefer to use a double cut carving chisel here but a regular bench chisel will work as you will see in this last picture,
if you lilt it out plumb so that the wood crushes evenly on both sides of the cut.
This is the double cut chisel that I prefer, with this you can cut it straight.
I don't like to cut too many lines before inlaying the wire because sometimes you will crush the wood from one line to the
other by mistake. The term wire is a little misleading, it should be called ribbon because it is as flat as you can see in
this picture.
You can make the wire yourself by simply sheering off a piece of silver or you can buy it already cut. I prefer to buy it
from Muzzle Loaders Supply in two sizes, .008 and .015.
Cut it to size and set it into the opening of the wood. If you have plunged the opened properly, the wire should fit in but
not reach the bottom.
Next, lay a flat piece of metal on top of the wire and gently tap it in with a smaller hammer. I have sacrificed a small
scale for this job, it works very well. You can curve it a bit to conform to the surface of the wood.
The wire should go in fairly easy, leave it a few thousands above the surface of the wood. If it should bend while trying
to put it in, don't bother trying to straighten it out, pull it out and throw it away, then re-plunge the opening and install
a new piece of wire.
Use a small pair of side cutters to cut your wire and a pair of tweezers work well for small pieces.
Continue doing the same until the whole design is in place.
Here is a perfect example where it would not have been good to cut the middle line in before the other wire was in. Plunging
this line in would have closed the wood in the adjoining cuts.
Again, cut the center line before cutting the other small lines. I know, the devil will be telling you to go ahead and cut
the other lines to save time but you will suffer for it if you do. When cutting the ends of the wire where they come up against
another wire, cut a little over size and at a slight bevel so when the wire is pushed down it will cut into the other wire
making the joint invisible. It will also tighten everything up.
Lay your flat metal on top and tap all the wire in evenly.
I use a cotton swab to wet the wood so the swelling will hold the wire tightly.
Glue should not be used unless there is a problem which I will get into later when I progress into a more difficult design.
If the wire has been put in properly, the finish that you put on the rifle will seep into the wood and act as glue.
After the wood has dried completely, take a very fine file or emery paper and file the surface down evenly,
leaving the wire a few thousands above the surface of the wood.
This is necessary to leave enough room for the finish to build up on the wood.
If the wire is below the finish you will never be able to clean it.
If you find that it is too high after the finish has been applied,
you can then file it down a bit more just before the last coat of finish.
The final touch is to rub the surface with 0000 steel wool which will polish the silver and smooth the grain of the wood that
the water raised.
The complete job finished.
The next design will be a little more complicated but basically the same technique.
