American Flag Inlay?

[Rick Contonio]

I'm considering a small project involving a cutting board/cheese board item with an American flag inlaid. I've never tried to inlay before and was wondering if anyone has any opinions on efficient ways to inlay stars for the flag?

I don't plan on putting the inlay where cutting would take place, but any thoughts also on a food safe paint for the flag colors? Is there such a thing and should I be concerned about any contamination from the paint?

Thanks!

[Brian Henderson]

Depends on what your inlay is made of. Here's a video of a guy who does nothing but cutting boards on YouTube, it might answer some questions.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcChmp1C2qw

[Rick Contonio]

Nice work. But alas, I have no CNC machine and as much as I would love to play with one, not quite sure my wife would give in to that one. lol

His suggestion of using dowels for the stars seems a bit too much like disrespecting the flag to me.

[Brian Henderson]

Nice work. But alas, I have no CNC machine and as much as I would love to play with one, not quite sure my wife would give in to that one. lol

His suggestion of using dowels for the stars seems a bit too much like disrespecting the flag to me.

Unfortunately, as he says, I don't think you can reasonably do stars without a CNC. I guess you could spend a couple of months with carving tools, but that's probably what it would take.

[Art Mann]

It would be fairly easy to inlay the stars and stripes with a CNC router using the vcarve inlay technique (see the Vectric website). Using this method rather than a straight route produces margins that are pretty much flawless. I have done all sorts of text and imagery on cutting boards and it is right in the middle of the cutting face. See example below. Click to enlarge. The inlay is deep enough that it is unlikely the user will wear through. Unfortunately, the OP doesn't (yet) have a CNC router.

You can get brightly colored wood dyes that would look good in this application. I think they would work better than paint.

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Edit: If your wife could only see all the beautiful things you could make her, she might change her mind. ;)

[Jim Finn]

I have experimented with trying to make all the stars using a leather stamping tool. I have the tool and made a star shaped recess on walnut with it and filled the recess with a mixture of white glue and white chalk dust. It works but alignment of fifty stars would be a real challenge to get perfect enough. Tandy leather has the tool for about $12. I am still looking for white chalk line chalk.

[Chris Padilla]

Depends on what your inlay is made of. Here's a video of a guy who does nothing but cutting boards on YouTube, it might answer some questions.

I just killed about an hour watching several of his videos. Outstanding work and videos! Love his European table saw...notice that there is no fence beyond the blade!

[Brian Henderson]

I just killed about an hour watching several of his videos. Outstanding work and videos! Love his European table saw...notice that there is no fence beyond the blade!

From what I've seen, on most Euro-saws, the fence can slide forward and backward so that you can have it where you want it. It does stop kickback when used properly.

[Chris Padilla]

There was a long thread on here a year or two ago about whether or not one should have a fence beyond the blade. Watching this cutting board guy work his saw was interesting.

[Chris Padilla]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqgbbziBkvo

Sorry if I'm straying a bit off-topic but I found this cutting board's geometry and 3D effect A M A Z I N G!

[Rick Contonio]

Pretty mind boggling that he figured out that design.

[Steve Peterson]

His suggestion of using dowels for the stars seems a bit too much like disrespecting the flag to me.

You can find examples of flag cutting boards using dowel stars on Etsy or Google. In my opinion, they look like they are missing something. Maybe it is disrespecting the flag. Or maybe it just looks too much like something a child would do. I think they need to be real stars.

Steve

[Garth Almgren]

Did you see some of his cutting boards inspired by M.C. Escher? Those are trippy!