String inlay instructions?

[Bob Jones]

I saw a neat grandfather clock this weekend that had some string inlay on the door. I thought it was great, because it was really not very noticeable. It got me more interested in learning how to do this. I'm not wanting anything complicated or curvy (yet) I'm just thinking that I would like to do something like the pictures attached. Can anyone recommend a good source for instruction this type of simple string inlay? I have heard good things about Steve Latta's dvd's, but I think they may be more about more complicated work.

[Ryan Baker]

The Steve Latta episodes of the Woodwright's Shop that are available on the web site would be a good place to start for some basics. The 2008-2009 season has some, as well as the 2012 season. There were some other ones about string inlay in table legs and such, but I don't think those are on the site.

[Chris Griggs]

I'm in the same boat you are at the moment. I spoke with a friend of mine who has one of the Latta DVDs (not sure which one), and he said its chocked full of little basic tips that really help you get started - I need to find out which so I can check it out one of these days.

I second the recommendation for the Latta Woodwright episodes. Even though they focus on lettering and line & berry, not straight lines, its still helpful to see him go through the steps.

[Frank Drew]

Bob,

I've done it two ways, General Woodworking and Neanderthal:

1) Using a very tiny bit in a Dremel tool equipped with a fence (like a freehand mini-router);

2) Using a hand tool made by Ulmia that looke rather like a marking/mortising gauge, with, instead of a scratcher, a pair of thin knives spaced apart with very thin shims to give you the width of cut you need. A chisel blade cutter rode behind the knives, cleaning out the waste from the cut. The fence (like on a marking gauge) gave you the distance in from the edge you want; there's also a two lobed plate that can be added to the fence so that you can track accurately around a curve. Sweet tool.

You can also make your own scratch stock for the purpose.

The trick is finding good quality inlay material (i.e. boxwood or holly for white, ebony or rosewood for dark); most of what's available these days, say, from Dover Inlays, is some sort of "whitewood" that doesn't resist dye very well, or even plastic of some kind.

[Frank Drew]

Here's a picture of the Ulmia inlay cutter. As an additional feature, it can also be used to cut inlay material out of veneer or whatever, by reversing the bevels of the two cutting knives. As I said, sweet tool.

I made a couple of shorter beams (the part that holds the knives, etc.) because the original is about 24" long and a bit awkward when you're working only an inch or two from an edge.

[Chris Griggs]

As far as tools go if you happen to already have the LV router plane with a fence the inlay cutter makes it very easy to cut lines that are 3/32 or greater. It scores much thinner than that very easily too, but I haven't figured out a good way to remove the waste (3/32 being the narrowest blade they make for the plane). I also have a pair of the little freehand tools (.032" I think) that they just started selling. If you use the groove cutter and inlay chisel against a straight edge you can cut some really thin grooves with just a little practice. Its a pretty cheap way to get started that will get the job done. I don't have their full on stringing/inlay/cutter/compass tool but I imagine that or LNs equivalent would be an ideal starting point if you want to do really thin straight lines and are prepared to spend $100+ up front.

What I haven't figured out yet is how to make my own stringing of the correct size - I'd like to find a way to do it without dropping $75 on the LN stringing thicknesser thingy - its probably not to hard to figure out how to make one, but I'll have to look at a bunch of picture to see for sure.

A fellow creeker is going to send me some scraps of fiber veneer to play with, so I'm going to see if I can get some string of the correct size from that. I'll keep you posted if I have anything useful to share as I continue dabbling.

[Mike Cogswell]

I'd recommend Latta's first video: Fundamentals of Inlay: Stringing, Line & Berry

Available from Lie-Nielsen direct or through Amazon. It's the first of four DVDs on inlays by Latta and includes everything you need to get started with simple inlay.

[Ryan Baker]

Yeah, I have that Latta DVD on my LN to-buy list too.

I went back through some old Woodwright's Shop episodes again. There was one called "Inlaid Legs with Steve Latta" that was the main one I was thinking of. He demonstrates a lot of basic stringing and inlay techniques. I would imagine it is very similar to the DVD, in a much abbreviated version. Unfortunately, that episode was from 2004, and is not currently available on the site, so I guess it doesn't help much. Probably best to just get the LN DVD.

[Bob Jones]

Great, thanks for the tips. I'll just add that DVD to my list :)

I think for now I may experiment with 1/8" strips since I should be able to do that with my plow plane and router plane. If I like it, that would be enough fuel to dive deeper.

Funny that ebony and holly are always mentioned with stringing/inlay. They certainly look very striking with their contrast, but I seem to have a taste for slightly less contrast. Here are a few pictures of other pieces from the same antique shop that had inlay that I hope to replicate one day. These pieces are all 100+ years old and were built in Switzerland or Germany. They were really nice looking.

I believe the inlay materials were maple, walnut, and cherry.

[Mike Cogswell]

Latta's second DVD covers inlaid legs while the third covers inlaid bandings. Both are also excellent.

L-N just released a fourth which covers inlaid things like ovals and shells - I haven't seen that one yet.

So far, the hardest part seems to be finding the materials to actually make the stringing.

Mike