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Old 06-04-2008, 06:25 AM
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MikeDubber MikeDubber is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Evansville, Indiana
Posts: 510
Default Re: Background relief

I've learned to make my inlay cavity very secure by raising hooks that bite the inlay material as it is set - once the inlay is set properly, I cut the surrounding metal away all the way up to the inlay. I cut so close that I remove the surrounding metal from the surface and leave a small amount of supporting metal to secure the inlay. Finally, a background treatment (dot or point punch) obscures the transition from inlay to background. If you examine it under the scope, you can see that the inlay is still held by a very tiny "dam" of metal base.

Having said that, setting an inlay/overlay securly can be done using several methods, including the damscening technique you can examine closely on Barry Lee Hands' previous tutorial. Barry used much the same setting technique by raising hooks (criss-cross cuts) to bite his Elk inlay gold as it was set. He then cut around the outside of the inlay essentially leaving no outside steel "dam" to hold it place.

Success in setting secure inlays depends on the quality of your prep work in creating a good base, keeping your inlay material clean and annealed, and setting the inlay in gradual calculated steps.
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