protecting precious inlays?

[smithwessonengr]

hey guys,when engraving a knife that has ..lets say mother of pearl inlays in the frame of the knife and your doing some gold inlay work next to it in the steel...how do you protect it when you sand the gold down to insure you dont harm the mother of pearl?...just curious to different techniques you guys may have?

[Ray Cover Jr]

Wayne,

I use three different techniques. Which I use depends on what the inlay situation is.

If I am using line inlay only, such as borders or accents along the spines/stems of scrolls, I tape the inlay off. Actually I do this on jobs without inlay as well to keep loose chips from scratching soft inlay matls.

I take a piece of Scotch brand "Storage, long lasting in hot and cold temperatures" tape (I buy mine at Wal-Mart) and I lay it over the inlay then trim it off with an exacto knife. I try to trim it right on the seam between the inlay and surounding metal. Obviously one needs to take care to stay of the inlay mtl so as not to scar it with the exacto blade. The tape is crystal clear so it is easy to see this seam. It is also heavy enough that it holds up well.
It also has an added advatage in that it supports the inlay material from the shock of hammering. Sort of like dropping a glass coke bottle that is full and has the lid on as opposed to dropping one that is empty. The empty one is more likely to break because the glass has no mechanical support.

Once that is done I proced to engrave as normal. I inlay my lines of gold and then trim them in the traditional manner with a flat chissel. I try to be as careful as possible when trimming so I don't scar the surrounding steel. That way a minimum of refinishing is needed.


Now for the second situation:

There have been jobs where a majority of the surface is covered with inlay of some sort. I have had jobs where copper,gold, green gold and even platinum were inlayed in a scene to add color. I have also had jobs where more of the surface was gold inlayed than was left steel. Here is what I do on those jobs where there is so much inlay it is impossible (or impractical) to not touch surrounding areas when flushing the inlay.

I lay out my design and start inlaying from the hardest material to the softest. As each color of metal is inlayed I take a file and I file it flush and go on to the next color. repeating this untill all the inlay is in. Once tha last color is inlayed I file the entire inlayed surface flush and then refinish the entire surface of the knife, pearl inlay and all. After this I cover the pearl with tape to protect it until the job is finished. I find that on large inlay jobs it is faster, and usually looks better, to just refinish the whole thing rather than try to spend three days ##### footing around pearl or ivory with stones.

Now this is the hard one:

I am getting ready to cut one of Tim's knives that has an opal inlay. Obviously, the previous technique is impractical here unless you have the appropriate lapidary equipment to refinish the opal or other semi precious stone. I cases like this I do a combination of the previous two. I tape off the stone, do the inlay, and carefully file the large inlay areas flush being very careful to stay away from the stone with the file. Then I just refish the metal surface and leave the stone alone. This takes a bit more care and time and I would not approach such a job without carefully considering "everything".

These techniques have worked for me so far. I am interested to see what others do though. Maybe some has something better.

Ray

[smithwessonengr]

thanks ray,thats exactly how i do it also,i was just curious if anyone had other techniques as well

[Tim Adlam]

When I was working with conservation of prints and documents, my mentor said something
to me that sticks to this day.
"Never get yourself into a corner that you can't back out of".

This has been the foundation of my approach to engraving work.
We all know that once burin touches steel...we're committed.
Like Ray said, consider everything carefully.
Every job is different than the last and has it's peculiar challenges.

I "make safe" everything that won't be engraved much like Wayne and Ray does.
Most times, I hot glue the whole knife to a block of wood.
That way the pressure of the vise jaws never touch the knife.
In the case of folders, I shim the inside of the frame to prevent tightening the action of the knife.
The blade gets taped off as well as the scales.
All I want to see is the area at hand.
I do very minimal sanding on inlay.
After cleaning the surplus off with a flat graver, I stone the remainder down with various
soft stones ending using a scotch stone.
The final finish is done with micro finishing paper used in the print trade to clean ink rollers with
followed by hand polishing.

Tim

[pilkguns]

I would?nt be too concerned about the sanding issues around mother of pearl, its soft and will repolish very easy as Ray and Tim said. For me, dependng on the type of work I?m doing on a given knife, sculpture, inlay or just plain engraving, I may cut out a thin sheet of aluminum offset printer?s plate. ( FREE at your local printshop, one plate will last awhile) to give a metal sheild over the pearl or other material just in case I slip and go gouging into it. The aluminum plate is maybe .005 thick and use double stick tape to hold it in place. Although to be honest, sicne I quit using hammer and chisel and push burin, major slips/screwups into something soft have not been a problem.

As an engraver, you have also got to be professional polisher as well, especially if your doing high end knifes. Best to always have some 1000,1200, 1500,2000 grit paper around , plus some leather buffs to match a particular maker?s polish style if necesaary. If your at a show, ask the maker how he did the polish, most will be glad to share with you, as they want the finished product to look as good as possible. For sure as Tim said, shim the inside of folders well if your doing an inlay, , although you can have tightening issues just from doing background removal, as the various levels of metal removal may relieve some stress in the metal that would not ever have occurred if the bolster was untouched.

Another pitfall to be aware of, on trick folders with unique locking mechanisms, or ?auto? knifes??.If your not familiar with the internals of a particular knife, best talk to the maker before doing any extensive inlay or even deep background removal, as you can make a cut deep enough cut into one of the internal cavities?.even as shallow as 25 thousandths. Don?t ask me how I know this?

Tim said don?t ever back yourself into a corner, excellent advice.. I would say if your going to engrave a knife with any kind of hard stones in them, I would chase around and find a hobbyist lapidary person in your area, maybe attend a few local crafts shows or something, you?ll run across someone. That way, you can polish the stone back to its original finish or better after you?ve done your work. Yes, you can mask it, off, but trying to polish the metal without touching the stone is a BIG pain. And sooner or later, something is going to happen, a slip, or dropping it, and you will NEED this done, so its better to have door already open to get this done locally, rather than overnighting a mutlti thousand dollar knife half way around the country.

Also, those continous loop 1/4 inch and up sanding sticks are a godsend for delicate polshing of individaul figures. Brownells used carry them, but they are also in a lot of woodoworking catalogs as well. the finest grit you can buy the loops pre made is 600, but i have made some of my own up to 1200, but I end up attaching a thick piece of clear packing tape on the back side, so that the 1200 grit paper is less likely to break around that that narrow tip.

[HermanKnives]

Ray,

Please post pics when you get the opal knife finished. I would also like a print for my photo album if possible. You do very nice work! Love the many shades of inlays you do.

[Ray Cover Jr]

Tim,

I will do my best. I am thinking about taking my SLR and trading it in on a digital SLR so I can get good pics and skip the print thing. But I will send you a jpeg which you will be welcome to print out or use on your website.

But now don't expect mine to look as good as Coop's.