what is the right way to cross to "inlay" wood strips?

[rudy de haas]

I want to add inlaid strips about 7/8th wide and 1/8th thick to make a wall made of 1/2" baltic birch look like it's assembled from flat panels. The vertical lines are 93" and can be made from continuous strips - but that means the horizontal strips will be broken into pieces a little shorter than each panel. What is the right (suggested, recommended, normal?) way of ensuring that the joints where the horizontal strips butt up against the vertical ones are hard to see?

Note: all the wood for the strips is left over from another project and has been stored dry after being cut - the original boards were about 1 1/8th thick and these strips were made when I cut the edges off those on the table saw. They are very dry, santos mahogany, and unlikely to either shrink or expand visibly in their new role as decoration.

[Jim Becker]

The thinner the material, the less issue you're going to have with movement...and that means you can fit them exact.

[Lee Schierer]

Your pieces are not going to change much if anything in length. Your 7/8" width shouldn't be a problem either. Make the pieces slightly thicker than what you cut the groove so they are slightly higher than your panel surface. That will give you a little bit to trim by hand plane and/or sanding to get the perfectly flush.

[rudy de haas]

Thanks, both of you - but that was only part of the question I'm, concerned about. To be more specific: at the moment the default appears to be to butt the end of the shorter pieces up against the sides of the longer ones where they cross. That leaves a narrow line visible and is really not a joint at all, although I guess it is a join :)

What I'd like to know is whether this is actually the right way to do it - I've been experimenting (unsuccessfully), for example, with cutting mini dovetails with the "mortise" part in the long vertical strip and the "tenon" part comprising the ends of the shorter horizontal ones. (Spinning a 1/4" router bit in a 3 HP shaper to make a 1/4" deep cut is possible, but feels, and probably is, stupid - but I have many of these to do and making a jig to cut these using a handsaw or my 14" bandsaw doesn't seem practical either).

[Jerry Miner]

I don't think there is any benefit to a dovetail here, unless you like the look enough to justify the effort. A simple butt joint is as "right" as anything. You could do a 4-way miter, but again, only if you think the look is worth the effort.