First attempt at inlay...

[bob blakeborough]

So today I tried my first ever inlay. It is a very simple 3 inch diameter segmented circle, but it was completely entirely with hand tools. While it is definitely not great, for my first attempt I am quite pleased! Biscally I drew a template out onto a piece of MDF with a protractor and compass and started marking at cutting the segments out of veneer alternating between cherry and walnut, taping them together with green painters tape as I went. Once the rough circle was complete I backed the entire thing in veneer tape and used the compass to draw out the proper circle shape and cut around it slowly using a 3/8th chisel. I then took the finished circle and transferred the exact shape onto my piece of curly maple using a craft knife to lightly mark it out. Using a small LV router plane, I cut the circle to depth, being very careful at the edges, carefully deepening the guide line before finishing to the edge. After fine tuning the fit I glued the circle in place and clamped it in for about a half hour. Once dry the veneer stood slightly proud of the base piece so I slowly worked it with a cabinet scraper, but that grew tiresome so I set an extremely shallow cut on my LN No.3 and hit it with that. It worked quite well actually. Once done I just put a little BLO on the entire thing and after a couple coats of amber shellac, giving the result you see here...

By no means do I know if this was the proper way to do it, but it worked out fairly well and with a bit of practice I can see it getting much easier. Any comments on it, and any other ideas and advice that might make it easier would be welcome!

211003211004211005

[Mark Baldwin III]

Looks good, Bob. Inlay is definitely something I'd like to take a crack at one of these days. How did you deal with changing grain direction while cutting the circle? I know that I would have probably chipped out a lot on the edges...mainly because I'm ham-fisted and impatient.

[bob blakeborough]

Looks good, Bob. Inlay is definitely something I'd like to take a crack at one of these days. How did you deal with changing grain direction while cutting the circle? I know that I would have probably chipped out a lot on the edges...mainly because I'm ham-fisted and impatient.

I just sort of "nibbled" at it with my 3/8th chisel, leaving one corner of the chisel on the piece of wood I was cutting on (not unlike the point of a compass I would guess to say) and just taking small bites by moving the circle in tiny increments into the blade and just gently pushing down to leading edge to cut the circle, maybe 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch at a time. Went surprisingly quickly and was very simple.

[Bob Jones]

Nice! I will try that soon.

[Mike Henderson]

Good work. I'll offer a couple of comments/suggestions.

When making the "hole" for the inlay, I use a small powered router, such as the Colt, and route to the depth I want. When routing, you want to not go all the way to the line, and you want to make sure you keep some support material under the router. Then to cut to the line, you can use a carving gouge with the sweep that exactly matches the curve of the circle. You can take your work to the store and they'll let you match the curve to the gouges so you get an exact match. Use the gouge to make a plunge cut and then clean up the base with a regular chisel, being careful not to chip the sides. If you left any support material in the middle of the circle, you can clean that up with a chisel, also.

For your inlay, I would have either made the grain run directly down the wedge, or if I had the grain running down one side, as you did, I would have put two pieces side-to-side so the sides with the grain parallel to it would be against each other. This makes the other side stand out because the grain is running into the two adjoining pieces.

You can use veneer for inlay as long as you don't sand it too much. When using veneer, you want your "hole" to be the proper depth so you don't have to remove much veneer to flatten the surface. The advantage of veneer is that it's easier to cut into the pattern you want.

Good job. I hope it starts you down the road to decorative effects on furniture.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work.

I want to try that some day.

jtk

[Chris Griggs]

Pretty cool Bob. Thanks for showing us what you did. Glad you got to put that new No. 3 to use. Inlay is definitely something I'd love to get into. If nothing else it would be cool to learn how to do some banding and or stringing.

[bob blakeborough]

Good work. I'll offer a couple of comments/suggestions.


For your inlay, I would have either made the grain run directly down the wedge, or if I had the grain running down one side, as you did, I would have put two pieces side-to-side so the sides with the grain parallel to it would be against each other. This makes the other side stand out because the grain is running into the two adjoining pieces.

You can use veneer for inlay as long as you don't sand it too much. When using veneer, you want your "hole" to be the proper depth so you don't have to remove much veneer to flatten the surface. The advantage of veneer is that it's easier to cut into the pattern you want.

Good job. I hope it starts you down the road to decorative effects on furniture.

Mike

I can definitely understand about the grain direction. This practice piece was more about seeing if I could get stuff to just fit together. lol! The wheels are already turning with ideas on how to use grain to make things pop. As for material, is there something other than veneer you would suggest that does a better (although not necessarily easier) job?

[george wilson]

It would be better if you used more contrasting woods,white and brown,for example. Welcome to the school of hurting necks!!:)

[Mike Henderson]

I can definitely understand about the grain direction. This practice piece was more about seeing if I could get stuff to just fit together. lol! The wheels are already turning with ideas on how to use grain to make things pop. As for material, is there something other than veneer you would suggest that does a better (although not necessarily easier) job?
You can buy thicker veneer - about 1/25" - from some veneer vendors, but the selection of woods is limited. Some may even have 1/16" veneer. That'll give you more to work with than standard veneer - 1/42". Beyond that, it's saw your own.

Mike