Card scraper for Veneer?

[Joe Pelonio]

I'm still a beginner at this so sorry if seems a dumb question or has been discussed before.

When doing veneer inlay or marquetry with different woods, it seem like a card scraper would stop the problem of dust muddling the different colors
as it's moved into the pores of the next color by the sandpaper. On the other hand, it seems like the scraper might catch on an edge and break off the corner of a piece. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Tony Bilello]

You will be flooded with dumb answers including this one. LOL
Seriously, I dont do marquetry and not too much of veneer inlay. I use a card scraper sometimes. You have to be really careful on the edges.
As for sanding dust, I find that my air nozzle from my air compressor blows it all away. It will blow dust right out of the pores.
Hope this helped

Regards

Tony B

[Tom Esh]

...As for sanding dust, I find that my air nozzle from my air compressor blows it all away. It will blow dust right out of the pores. ...

Yep, sure does, though sometimes it takes a surprising amount of pressure. I was just cleaning some maple dust off walnut before finishing. Stubborn! I finally had to crank it up to 80 psi, put on the earmuffs, and hold on to the workpiece for dear life.

[Joe Pelonio]

Ah, thanks for the tips. I use air too but usually at around 30 psi. Best crank it up.

[Barry Vabeach]

Joe, I have done some inlay, not marquetry, and sanding dust can give you muddled results. If you bedded the inlay very close to right, I use a card scraper. If it is much higher than the field ( say the thickness of 2 or 3 business cards) then I start with a block plane and trim it pretty close and finish with a card scraper, that pretty much minimizes the tearing out a corner problem. Don't forget that even if you get away from the dust issue, you still have 2 more problems - when you stain the field you have to keep the stain off the inlay, and then secondly, when you apply a finish, make sure that it doesn't lift the stain or you will end up with a slightly stained inlay - or so I have read, nothing like that has ever happened to me. The way I try to minimize the first problem is I stain the field, then apply 2 coats of clear finish. I then cut the channel for the inlay, then lay it in and glue it. If I am extremely lucky, when I use the card scraper, I get the inlay level and scrape at most one layer of clear finish in some spots, and in only a few spots do I scape off both clears and the stain - so I come back with a fine brush and reapply the stain it those spots, then the clear to those spots. When that is all dry, hit the whole piece with clear coats that don't redissolve the stain and you are done.