Today Blade Magazine featured the ABS YouTube Channel video of Master Smith Joe Keeslar on silver wire inlay techniques in their Monthly Email Newsletter.

Video: Mastering Silver Wire Inlays

In this video, American Bladesmith Society master smith Joe Keeslar explains his techniques for creating renowned silver wire inlays.

Click here to watch.

Question posted on YouTube by viewer:

Joe, beautiful work. I've started to learn this skill and do OK on a flat surface but I have a knife handle I'd like to inlay but it has a slender handle. I've tried a couple of practice pieces and not able to get the wire to conform to the curvature. I only have .010x.100" wire, is that part of the problem. I've tried to cut to ~.055" but not steady enough. Any hints? William Howard

Reply by Joe Keeslar, MS:

Hi Dan, Thanks for fielding the question on silver wire inlay.

It sounds to me that your silver wire is way to wide for this type of inlay work, that of going in and around a small radiused handle. I would suggest that you aquire a narrower wire, one in the .050 t0 .055 width and try your inlay again. This narrower wire can be obtained from T. B. HAGSTOZ & SON, INC., 709 SANSOM STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106, 1-800-922-1006. You will order the amount of wire you want by the dollar value you wish to spend, not by amount of wire you wish to buy. Tell them you want semi-annealed sterling silver in whatever dimension (size) . I recommend and I use the following, .008 by .055 sterling silver flat wire.

Our founding father of the ABS, Bill Moran and Jay Henderickson always used .013 by .055 sterling silver or sometimes fine silver flat wire. Both of these gentlemen have laid more silver wire inlay than all the rest of us put together.

I hope that these few words have been a help.

Semper Fi,

Joe Keeslar