How to Protect Holly Inlay during Finishing

[Kim Howarter]

I am just ready to finish an Oak bed frame that I made that I inlaid a moon made from Holly. I plan to use Danish Oil to finish it and want to protect the moon from being darkened by the Danish Oil.

Will shellac to protect it if put on before I put the Danish oil on?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Kim

[sheldon pettit]

I am just ready to finish an Oak bed frame that I made that I inlaid a moon made from Holly. I plan to use Danish Oil to finish it and want to protect the moon from being darkened by the Danish Oil.

Will shellac to protect it if put on before I put the Danish oil on?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Kim

Shellac would be ok but better to use acrylic in this instance. It will not add any color to the holly as shellac would do even platina or blonde will add color. If you were bringing it to me to finish with the same request, i would use a few coats of flat Krylon spray or similiar, most likely Parloid B-72 acrylic resin in xylol i make up myself, and seal in the holly after carefully masking the outline with flatback automotive tape, then remove the tape and lightly sand 600 grit and apply the oil or whatever. This is also the same type of thing i would do if staining the oak and wanting to leave certain areas unstained.

Sam / Chemmy.

[Kim Howarter]

Thank, I will give your suggestion a try on some scrap pieces.

[Jim Becker]

Putting a barrier coat over the holly will help, but consider that the oil could still penetrate from the edges. You can help guard against this by having a "knife edge" separation between your inlay and the substrate so that the holly isn't actually in contact with the field around it. It takes meticulous preparation, but can be worth it. I agree with the advise to use a water borne acrylic to "mask" the holly for minimal color shift. Even the lightest of the light shellacs will impart some level of amber to the wood. Acrylics are generally "water clear" when dry.

[Kim Howarter]

Can you explain what you mean by "knife edge" separation? Not sure I know understand well enough what you mean.

THanks,
Kim

[Jim Becker]

Kim, I mean you need to unobtrusively score around your inlay with a sharp knife so that the inlay is separated from the field so the oil will not seep under the edge of your masked inlay. That scoring will essentially disappear once you get your top coats on the piece.

[sheldon pettit]

I think there has been a misunderstanding of my reply or I'm not reading others replies correctly?

what i was trying to say was to mask of the outside edge of the inlay leaving the holly itself exposed, using flat-back vinyl automotive tape which will stay flat and not allow creep. then, with further masking with paper to keep from getting over-spray on the oak, apply your solvent based clear acrylic like Krylon clear, 2-3 coats drying in-between, which dries very fast and then remove the tapes and you will have a crystal clear sealed in holly inlay. I have never had an oil stain of any color bleed underneath the clear-coat, but if someone has using the method outlined please show proof so i don't offer this method again. The only time i have razor ed an outline is when i purposely wanted to color stain the line to purposely show up darker, in that instance it works very well.

If i have misunderstood my fellow posters, i apologize in advance.