Inlays - how to install
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A knife file is used to cut intermitent grooves into the edges of the inlay at suitable locations.. The epoxy fills the grooves and locks in the inlay so retention isn't dependent on adhesion. I also use suitable metal nails. Probably overkill. When finishing, I just apply over the permanent inlay but I don't use "built up" finishes so very little is on the inlay and is easily removed....Fred
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In this book the authors describe the way to pin them. Pretty straight forward, and done right you can't even tell they're pinned. I've also used epoxy and pured them with pewter. When inletting wood for a pewter pour, undercutting the edges slightly makes for the probably the most secure inlay I know of.
Fishing, To me it would depend on the inlay and the gun. The barrel wedge escution's on an English sporting rifle, I'd use screws. A sterling or coin silver thumb piece, I would make a nail from the same material and file off. Some are held in with a steel nail that acts like a wedge, in that it has no head, and is filed to a cone shape and hammered into the hole till the diameter of the nail wedges the inlay down. For real small inlays, I use a method similar to Fred's, making sure the inlay is a good snug fit to begin with. I always remove finish from the metal of any inlay.
Robby
Robby
I nail mine. Depending on how good my inlet is I may bed it with epoxy before nailing. If the inlay is thin and you don't have a solid base in the mortise, you may dimple the inlay when nailing it down.
For brass inlays, I make my own nails. Find a piece of steel the same thickness you want length of the nail to be. For a 3/16 long nail you will need a 3/16 thick piece of steel. Drill a 1/16 hole all the way through you steel jig. Counter sink one side of the hole. Insert a piece of 1/16" brass rod and cut it just a bit longer than the thickness of the metal. Place the jig on a solid surface and peen the end of the rod on the side you countersunk. This will produce a nail head. You'll have to punch the nail out from the other end. Sharpen/cut one end to a point and you have a nail with head.
You have little choice but to put your finsh right over the inlay. If for some reason you want to get the finish off, to age the brass, you can carefully remove with some steel wool.
For brass inlays, I make my own nails. Find a piece of steel the same thickness you want length of the nail to be. For a 3/16 long nail you will need a 3/16 thick piece of steel. Drill a 1/16 hole all the way through you steel jig. Counter sink one side of the hole. Insert a piece of 1/16" brass rod and cut it just a bit longer than the thickness of the metal. Place the jig on a solid surface and peen the end of the rod on the side you countersunk. This will produce a nail head. You'll have to punch the nail out from the other end. Sharpen/cut one end to a point and you have a nail with head.
You have little choice but to put your finsh right over the inlay. If for some reason you want to get the finish off, to age the brass, you can carefully remove with some steel wool.
I cut lines on the back of the inlay or glass bead the back or the inlay, to give the bedding something to get a good adhesion to. Normally use Accraglass gel to retain them & never had one come out as of to date. Have had to replace a few cause I screwed up the engraving or rifle was sold & needed new initials & you have to heat the epoxy to get it to let go.
If ya do ever have to remove one that is glued in, drill a small hole in it, make ya a small hook out of some drill steel, that will fit in the hole, take a ol'timey soldering Iron & get it good & hot, put the hook in the hole & heat the inlay with the iron tip & pull the hook & the inlay it will pop right out. :thumbsup: Have done several thumbpieces this way. Use the old inlay for a pattern for the new one.
If ya do ever have to remove one that is glued in, drill a small hole in it, make ya a small hook out of some drill steel, that will fit in the hole, take a ol'timey soldering Iron & get it good & hot, put the hook in the hole & heat the inlay with the iron tip & pull the hook & the inlay it will pop right out. :thumbsup: Have done several thumbpieces this way. Use the old inlay for a pattern for the new one.
Mike Brooks
Cannon
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I never use epoxy for inlays. The old timers didn't so I don't see any reason I should. I nail mine down.
If you have ever tried to replace lost inlays on a rifle that had them epoxied in place, you would never consider not pinning them. Epoxy will let loose eventually if you don't give it something to grab ahold of. It might take 30 years for it to let loose, but it will eventually.
Mike Brooks
Cannon
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Epoxy will release with heat....don't lay your gun out in the sun....bioprof said:
Well..... :idunno: When they all fall out & the rifles fall apart in 30 years, you all will have a steady stream of work then, and ya all can bitch at me for sending that work to ya ! :rotf: :rotf: By then there should be a couple of hundred of them out there for ya to fix !! :shocked2: :grin:
Mike Brooks
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No big deal, everybody does this stuff different. no offense intended. :vBirddog6 said:
I have used alot of epoxy in my day building guns... :wink: just not for inlays. :v
Oh I am not offended.. :grin: Heck if I was to get upset over that, you & I would have fell out long ago. :v :grin: :rotf: We see things differently at times, and that is OK. It is just a different way of building them & a different way of looking at it.
On most large inlays & thumb pieces, I either nail them or put screws in them & file the heads flush so I have a ? 1/2 of a countersink head holding them in, and normally you cannot see the nail or screw. The tiny nails I make have lil barbs on them to hold them into the wood. But I still put epoxy under them. Yes, maybe a overkill but I do it anyway. At times I have silver soldered small wood screws to the back of them, drill a pilot hole & drive the inlay & screw into the inlet. On the few very small inlays I have used just Accraglass, they are small would be very easy to replace should one ever come out, but personally I don't see it happening. The reason I say this is I have had to replace a few because of change of hands, they wanted a name change, initial change, etc. I have one H of a time getting them out !
Also, if they did come out, there is nothing stopping someone from putting a lil tiny pin in them to retain them again. But really I don't think the wood shrinking around a tiny pin is any dif than it shrinking around the back of a small inlay. If the wood shrinks enough to loosen either, the inlay could possibly come loose.
Also, you must consider that Most rifles with allot of inlays, in today's use, the rifles are not going to be exposed to the harsh environments & elements of what they were exposed to 150-300 years ago. We have better wood, better metals, better glues, better finishes, better storage areas, basically better everything when you consider it ALL for the welfare of the firearm in the home & in use today.
Not to say some don't get exposed to harsh elements, but were I to use one for that type of hunting or shooting, it would be one without inlays.
I know others see it differently, but that is how I see it, right or wrong.... :idunno:
On most large inlays & thumb pieces, I either nail them or put screws in them & file the heads flush so I have a ? 1/2 of a countersink head holding them in, and normally you cannot see the nail or screw. The tiny nails I make have lil barbs on them to hold them into the wood. But I still put epoxy under them. Yes, maybe a overkill but I do it anyway. At times I have silver soldered small wood screws to the back of them, drill a pilot hole & drive the inlay & screw into the inlet. On the few very small inlays I have used just Accraglass, they are small would be very easy to replace should one ever come out, but personally I don't see it happening. The reason I say this is I have had to replace a few because of change of hands, they wanted a name change, initial change, etc. I have one H of a time getting them out !
Also, if they did come out, there is nothing stopping someone from putting a lil tiny pin in them to retain them again. But really I don't think the wood shrinking around a tiny pin is any dif than it shrinking around the back of a small inlay. If the wood shrinks enough to loosen either, the inlay could possibly come loose.
Also, you must consider that Most rifles with allot of inlays, in today's use, the rifles are not going to be exposed to the harsh environments & elements of what they were exposed to 150-300 years ago. We have better wood, better metals, better glues, better finishes, better storage areas, basically better everything when you consider it ALL for the welfare of the firearm in the home & in use today.
Not to say some don't get exposed to harsh elements, but were I to use one for that type of hunting or shooting, it would be one without inlays.
I know others see it differently, but that is how I see it, right or wrong.... :idunno:
Brooks and Birddog6
Yuo guys ain't gonna start kissing are you? :grin:
No need to drill a hole in the inlay. Just solder a piece of copper wire on it with swiff 95 an pull it out. The heat from the soldering iron will release the superglue. I use nails, super glue and sometimes I solder a lug on the back and screw them on from the bottom. Like on a thunbpiece. the screw comes up from under the trigger guard and cannot be seen. Sometimes I don;t use anything , like David price does.
Whetever works.
Yuo guys ain't gonna start kissing are you? :grin:
No need to drill a hole in the inlay. Just solder a piece of copper wire on it with swiff 95 an pull it out. The heat from the soldering iron will release the superglue. I use nails, super glue and sometimes I solder a lug on the back and screw them on from the bottom. Like on a thunbpiece. the screw comes up from under the trigger guard and cannot be seen. Sometimes I don;t use anything , like David price does.
Whetever works.
