BASIC INLAY TECHNIQUES

METAL TO METAL INLAY

Traditional inlay can be tricky to master. It is necessary to undercut a triangular

groove into your metal and then hammer in the different metal that will form the
inlay. The metal does not need to be soldered as it will expand out to fill the gap
held in by tension.

The following is a non-traditional alternative.

Create a channel using a graver, saw or file.
Try to dig down the depth of the round wire you have chosen. Then align the
wire to be inlayed along the groove. Solder using small pallions placed at
intervals along the inlay. Let the work cool right down as it is prone to cold water
shock; then pickle; wash well and dry.
Then you can pass the metal through a rolling mill, or, wedge it in between
protective metal plates and squeeze in a vice. The final alternative is to place
the sheet on a flat plate, put a protective plate of metal over the piece of work
and hit with a hammer. (this final option is difficult to do in a uniform manner.)

This is an overhead view of how the pallions should be placed:

It is much better to use lots of really small pallions, rather than just a couple of
large ones.
Soldering: The wire is going to be vulnerable to heat as it is much smaller than
the sheet. I would get the heat underneath for as long as you can and then just
flash the blowtorch over the top.
The solder should shoot underneath the gold wire securing it to the Sterling
Silver base.

The end result should look something like this.

Simply emery off the excess inlay.

If you wish to create a shape like this, simply solder you lengths of wire together
thus, using hard gold solder. Cut the exact shape of the wire halfway down into
the sheet, then use medium or easy Silver solder to attach the inlay to the sheet.

Once you have prepared your inlayed sheet, it can be cut and formed in much
the same way as a plain sheet of metal. However, The structure has been
weekend by this process and care must be taken with handling, forming and
further soldering.

Imogen Waitt November, 2012