Dissenting voice here: I'd avoid the inlay on the pommel, myself. For such a historical-looking sword, the inlay takes away from that, in my humble opinion.

Inlay and incised lines on the blade, however....

If it would help in your decision, I could do up some samples of the inlay or engraved options. I have to concentrate on getting blades done at the moment, but after that I should have some time to do samples.

Mark

Jean,

I have to agree with Nathan. To me the inlay makes the design less noticeable. To answer your earlier question about colored engraving (recessed inlay?) the only way I know of to do something like this would be to engrave or etch the design and then electroplate (a process similar to chroming) the recessed area. Not the most historical process, but it would give you the recessed contrast and color difference.

Hope this helps,

Jean,

If you want everything uniform, I would suggest engraving. I think doing everything in inlay would either make it too subtle, or add too much color to the guard and pommel.

You could engrave all of the initials and have just the wolf head inlayed...
Or you could do what was discussed when you were still planning the sword, have it all engraved then have the initials on the guard underlined with copper wire, it gives you some nice inlay but doesn't make the initials too subtle.

Just some food for thought!
-James

Hello all!

Jean,

Another option, instead of inlay, may be to use enamel in the engraving. The red cross on a white ground on the Henry V sword was painted on. It may have been added for his funeral, but who knows?

Other engravings or carved decoration on sword pommels may have been painted, and the paint lost over time. It's pure specualtion, but it's a possibility.

Just a thought. :)

Steve;

Engraving catches the light better and gives a more 3D effect I think

The inlays depend on colour contrast and can be very attractive and desirable but when both are polished bright the colour difference becomes very subtle at least until a little patina sets in: I noticed this on some knives with some brass pins holding nickel silver bolsters to a full tang. When polished bright the brass pins were also invisible until the surface aged a bit.

One answer is don't polish. :p Or the steel could be blued to increase contrast.

Oh, I'm slightly red / green colour blind ( No I don't see in black and white and I can differentiate red from green when the colours are pure and fully saturated: But brown and green will fool me ! ).

Anyway the point being that as a graphic artist I've always been very much more sensitive than normal to contrasts of light and dark than subtle colour. It's not so much that I don't see in colour only that my personal sensitivity to certain colours or my colour spectrum doesn't match other mortals. ;) :lol:

Not sure but this is one reason I will give more importance to contrast than colour.

In any case I appreciate all the views given and reserve the right to be fickle about the whole thing at least until I make up my mind . :D

Steve:
The problem up here is COLD not lack of sunlight: Today was so bright you could go blind without sunglasses.
Very cold winter days then do be more sunny than not. Oh, what we lack at this time of year are number of hours of this bright sunshine: Dark at 4:30 P.M. " depressing !