These are pictures of two sets of bridle silver that I recently finished. Each photo shows half of the items in that set. Had to build two of everything. Almost $800.00 worth of silver in this project.

Stewart

I am impressed by your engraving. You did a fantastic job. The whole thing
looks great.
Rod

Beautiful.

Stewart,
That is some very nice work. The engraving jumps out, as does the overall craftsmanship. You have hit a home run here, very well done. Someone is going to be really happy with this. What gauge silver is this?

_________________
May God Bless you, as He has me
Mike Pardue
www.parduesilversmith.com

Do you do something to darken the background? It looks great. It really makes the bright cuts pop.
Jim

Howdy Stewart,

I am in awe! As usual the engraving is awesome. I will give you a call later in the week.

D.C.

_________________
The best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse.

Stewart- Absolutely stunning! Beautifully crafted!

I really love your partial flowers- I love when there's a variety of different flowers or even just slight variations of the same flower. The scalloped buckle set's flowers(and overall appeal) are my favorite(pretty tough call)-they flow and fit the scolls so nicely-(where I'd mess up and try to fit in a bunch of little leaves off the scrolls)-the flowers aren't a typical symmetrical pattern which I think makes them alot more interesting- the way the scolls come of the sides of the flowers on the browplate worked out great. Simply amazing

You've done a great job on the pics-can see every detail so clearly. As good as your pics are, I'd love to see some work in person, as I'm sure the photos aren't doing true justice to these peices!

I'd also be interested in knowing how you darken your engraving (and what steps you take after darkening to bring up the highlites).

Keep posting- I love your work and can't wait to see more.

Richard

Thanks for all the compliments. But I welcome criticism so please feel free to point out anything you don't like. I'm in this to get better.

Mike,
I used 12 gage for the buckles, 20g for the tips, 16 gage for the back of the tips, and 16g for everything else.

Jim and Richard,
I'm constantly playing around with how I blacken the engraving. I'm still not real happy with what I'm doing. I either use fingerprint ink or some type of black paint to get the look I've got here. I've used several different types of paint, on these I used Rustoleum. After I apply the paint or ink, I give it a couple minutes and then remove the excess with my thumb. The paint will dry pretty quick, and then I go over the piece with a pink eraser. If I have to I would carefully use laquer thinner to get anything I couldn't remove with the eraser. The ink dries very slowly. I will put in an oven overnight at 150-200 degrees to speed the process up. The next day I will use the eraser on it. Then hit it with a sunshine cloth. Like I said, I'm still not completely happy with my results and if anyone has a suggestion, I would like to hear it.

Richard,
I agree with you. I liked the way the layout on scalloped buckle turned out, but I wasn't crazy about how the other buckle came out. It was alright, but it sure could have been better.

Stewart

I use similar method on my engraving. I've started using "Grobet-Background Antique" instead of regular paint-it seems a little thinner than most other paints and seems to get down in the finer lines better.

By the sounds of the material you used one the buckle (12ga), you don't want it bending! I've seen some very nice buckles, that have been built out of thinner material and they just don't stand up (especially if they're solid sterling-opposed to silverfill). You did a very nice job on the tongues of the buckles as well-look really clean and should function properly.

Are them set screws I can see in the pic to hold the tips on?

Dang Stewart those are sure nice. Great work thanks for posting the photos.

Larry

Richard,
Thanks for telling me about the background antique. I will try it. Yes those are set screws in the tips. They work really well. Just another idea I picked up from the TCAA guys.

I've built quite a few of the 12 gage buckles and I only know of one of them getting bent up. And the guy that owns it is just one of those guys who is really hard on equipment. With the current price of silver I'm not building near as many of them as I was. 12 gage is pricey stuff.

Stewart

A friend of mine made some silver buckles for his bridle. He used brass buckles and overlayed them with a larger scalloped silver 18 ga front. Looked great and was very strong. This probably isn't a new idea but I hadn't seen it done this way befor. When they were on the bridle you couldn't tell that they weren't solid silver.

Larry

Larry,
Thats a great idea. I'm going to try that.

Richard,
I got to looking around in my shop this morning and found a bottle of the Grobet background antique. I had bought it several years ago and never even opened it. I just finished engraving several buckles this weekend so I tried it on them. It is easier to use than paint or ink and I got better results. Thanks for the tip.

Stewart

Stewart:
That is some drop dead bridle silver!!! The double border with the "zipper" wriggle really frames your outstanding engraving. You asked for criticism, there ain't none. Your engraving style is really nice, my only comment is charge on!!!!
Hoot.

Stewart,
This is outstanding.Looks very well constructed and finished
to the extent.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will be in my home town El Paso Tx Late this Year in October 14-22
Your not very far from there Maybe we can get together and pick each others heads.Thanks Joe Cera
www.ceraswaxes.com