roger wiegand
01-29-2018, 8:35 AM
The fireplace in our music room has been sitting with ragged plaster, inappropriate brickwork, and no mantle since we "completed" remodeling four years ago. I finally got to building a new surround which is more compatible with the English Arts and Crafts theme we've tried to set with the house.
Here's where I started:
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I did a skimcoat of thinset over the brick and then set some handmade tile DW had acquired for the purpose:
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Side cases were frame and panel cherry with birdseye maple, made to match the rest of the trimwork I've done in the house:
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The most challenging part was doing an inlay in the mantle board above the firebox. We chose a design from Harvey Ellis, a designer who worked with Stickley. Inlays were cut from 1/16" thick veneers using either a jewelry saw and birdsmouth, or by setting up my Stewart-Macdonald Foredom tool micro-router upside down and using it to cut the pieces freehand. I made multiple copied of the pattern, glued it to the veneer to be cut as a pattern and another copy to the board that was being inlaid. I used a knive to cut through the pattern to make a sharp line I could cut to, as the paper fuzzed up while cutting, making it impossible to see the edge. I tried to cut to the inside of the line on the veneer and the outside of the line on the routed cavity, not always with perfect success :D. The inlays are bloodwood, wenge, maple, and yellowheart.
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Once they were glued in I planed the board down smooth and finished the installation.
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Nice to have that one ticked off the to-do list! It is far from perfect, were I to do more things like this I would invest in templates for cutting the inlays. Doing them freehand captures every little bobble. I talked to a guy about laser cutting them but was told it couldn't be done with 1/16" thick veneers. I'm not convinced that's true. Next up is installation of a round window that's going to require bending a circular cherry frame. Should be interesting.
Here's where I started:
377733
I did a skimcoat of thinset over the brick and then set some handmade tile DW had acquired for the purpose:
377734
Side cases were frame and panel cherry with birdseye maple, made to match the rest of the trimwork I've done in the house:
377735
The most challenging part was doing an inlay in the mantle board above the firebox. We chose a design from Harvey Ellis, a designer who worked with Stickley. Inlays were cut from 1/16" thick veneers using either a jewelry saw and birdsmouth, or by setting up my Stewart-Macdonald Foredom tool micro-router upside down and using it to cut the pieces freehand. I made multiple copied of the pattern, glued it to the veneer to be cut as a pattern and another copy to the board that was being inlaid. I used a knive to cut through the pattern to make a sharp line I could cut to, as the paper fuzzed up while cutting, making it impossible to see the edge. I tried to cut to the inside of the line on the veneer and the outside of the line on the routed cavity, not always with perfect success :D. The inlays are bloodwood, wenge, maple, and yellowheart.
377736 377737
Once they were glued in I planed the board down smooth and finished the installation.
377738 377739 377740
Nice to have that one ticked off the to-do list! It is far from perfect, were I to do more things like this I would invest in templates for cutting the inlays. Doing them freehand captures every little bobble. I talked to a guy about laser cutting them but was told it couldn't be done with 1/16" thick veneers. I'm not convinced that's true. Next up is installation of a round window that's going to require bending a circular cherry frame. Should be interesting.