Making an overlay

[GlenV]

I was thinking of trying this, the idea was to make a cap for a Parker 14 eyedropper.  Not really expecting anything great so studied YouTube for engraving info, never tried that, and thinking of a way to try without much initial expense. I made a graver with hardened steel rod (cheap on amazon) turned a wood handle with scrap wood. Sterling is a bit more money so to see if it was possible bought some copper in the size of my drawings of a Heath style pattern and tried to engrave with push engraver only. Initially this was not working but with some trial and error with the shape of the cutting part of the tool it started to work a bit. I’m not very skilled at this yet. But kept at it, my second try shown here was acceptable for me. Not perfect. Then using a cheap jeweler saw for the piercing cuts (under 15$ amazon) and beeswax for cutting lube (I had some of this) here is where I got with the copper.

 To hold the metal plate to engrave and rotate I used a simple method that to my surprise worked ok I recessed a cutout in a piece of wood to hold the plate and rotated this wood to make the curved lines.

To form the cylinder after cutouts and filing sanding ect the cutouts I rolled around a copper tube tapping with a wood hammer.

Soldering was challenging at first but then ready to try In sterling.

[bsenn]

Impressive! Maybe not for your Parker, but I could see a copper overlay looking cool on a lower-tier bhr pen.

 

What is the thickness of the material you used?

 

Brian

[Bo Bo Olson]

Very nice start...there are electric graving machines...Not that I know much more than that.

[GlenV]

3 hours ago, bsenn said:

Impressive! Maybe not for your Parker, but I could see a copper overlay looking cool on a lower-tier bhr pen.

 

What is the thickness of the material you used?

 

Brian

I guessed at 28 gauge and it is pretty close, when I bought same in sterling it seems a little thicker and is nice but heavier. The copper one is toast now as I experimented with soldering on it … but if it was really nice I could have it gold plated for another pen…

[GlenV]

Hi Brian I used 28 gauge which when delivered was slightly thinner than the same gauge supposedly in sterling silver. I like the thicker one, but the cap turned out kind of heavy. ( more coming)

[GlenV]

3 hours ago, bsenn said:

Impressive! Maybe not for your Parker, but I could see a copper overlay looking cool on a lower-tier bhr pen.

 

What is the thickness of the material you used?

 

Brian

Hi I used 28 gauge thickness and is about right I think. 

[GlenV]

3 hours ago, bsenn said:

Impressive! Maybe not for your Parker, but I could see a copper overlay looking cool on a lower-tier bhr pen.

 

What is the thickness of the material you used?

 

Brian

Thank you, I used 28 gauge and was slightly thicker in the sterling silver oddly, which is nice but heavier.

[GlenV]

3 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Very nice start...there are electric graving machines...Not that I know much more than that.

Weird responses above i seem to be technology challenged lately !

 

You are right, Bo Bo there is a cool pneumatic type auto engraver, you have to push pretty hard by hand and it is easy to skip out and scratch along the surface, the only way to do harder metals like steel even brass.

[GlenV]

Moving on, sorry for poor thread reading, starting on the sterling in the same way

 

here the engraving didn’t go quite as well but similar and a slight change in the pattern, the holes are drilled to start the piercing sawing.

 

and here almost all cuts made. I should have taken pictures of the rolling and soldering, but didn’t. Looks similar to the copper. I used silver solder and it’s nice to solder silver. 

[GlenV]

And after a lot of work on this yesterday this is the cap as far as it is now.

 

It isn’t done yet but close, and it would take some explaining to describe how the cap lip was tapered, not easy, but just didn’t look right as a straight cylinder.

 

[jchch1950]

A very good work.

[GlenV]

Thanks it is really fun to try new things and I was happy with this experiment..

[GlenV]

Since the appearance of swaging narrows the cap lip I didn't seal the top of the overlay, however I do intend to duplicate the appearance. The material of the cap itself is still the paper and black glue method I have been using but am thinking of turning one from BHR to replace that.  The tapering was done by making a narrow slightly conical separate part, unfortunately I managed to use too much heat and melted the silver slightly, so changed to using low melting weight silver solder, which is not as pure but looks ok if kept polished.

[VacNut]

That is a great try. Impressive. I can easily see the pattern getting more intricate with more experience. 
It was a great learning experience for you, but also for us. 
thank you

[GlenV]

11 hours ago, VacNut said:

That is a great try. Impressive. I can easily see the pattern getting more intricate with more experience. 
It was a great learning experience for you, but also for us. 
thank you

Thank you very much for your kind remark, it was a fun challenge and more possibilities come to mind for other pens as you can imagine. It would be fun to see if other pens of this vintage could also have overlays.. more ideas than time… 😉

[grayautumnday]

17 hours ago, GlenV said:

Thank you very much for your kind remark, it was a fun challenge and more possibilities come to mind for other pens as you can imagine. It would be fun to see if other pens of this vintage could also have overlays.. more ideas than time… 😉

Thank you for this post!

 

I've been working on restocking my soft metal jewelry fabrication supplies... do you happen to know of a reputable online store/brand where I can buy reliable hard, medium & soft gold & silver solder? There are a ton of counterfeits being sold online, and the places where I used to buy supplies (local) have all gone out of business. 😞

[GlenV]

I had a very bad experience on amazon with gold solder, now I only use US suppliers, but not a particular supplier.. so sad to melt a rare nib because I didn't test the solder :{

[InesF]

That's outstanding and amazing first and second works, @GlenV!  And, most important, it is all yours and self made. Congratulations, well done!

 

 

If you still have the copper version, you may cover it with a thin film of soldering tin (loosing some fine details) and refresh some parts of the pattern afterwards to get a two-tone overlay.

[GlenV]

18 hours ago, InesF said:

That's outstanding and amazing first and second works, @GlenV!  And, most important, it is all yours and self made. Congratulations, well done!

 

 

If you still have the copper version, you may cover it with a thin film of soldering tin (loosing some fine details) and refresh some parts of the pattern afterwards to get a two-tone overlay.

Thank you! I like that idea. That would be an interesting look, I’ll have try that 😊

 

 

Here are a couple more pictures as finished up the end now, is from sterling but glued instead of soldered since the cap can only be inserted one way. 

 

 

[SoulSamurai]

That's awesome!