Options/technique for black inlay grooves

[mark mcfarlane]

I'm planning to add black grooves to some built-in cherry cabinets currently under construction. There will be ebony plugs at the (domino) joints and I want to add some grooves such as seen in the attached photo.

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How are people creating such black grooves?

I was thinking to apply a few coats of garnet shellac on the cherry face frames to color and seal the surface, then route the grooves, then paint in ebony stain or paint.

What's your approach?

[Lee Schierer]

I added a Holly border to a box I made using a router with an up spiral bit that cut a flat bottom groove.
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[mark mcfarlane]

I added a Holly border to a box I made using a router with an up spiral bit that cut a flat bottom groove.
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Thanks Lee. I'm not concerned with how to cut the groove, just how to color the bottom and sides of a groove without messing up the cherry finish, and to get the best 'black' I can.

I considered doing an inlay veneer or ebony strips but I've kind of run out of time. The ebony plugs are gonna kill half a day to mill the plugs from rough stock, insert, and plane,...

I have 8 strips to do ranging in length from 18" to 40".

[Jim Becker]

Guided router since these are stopped grooves with the ends cleaned with a sharp (and narrow) chisel or knife. Then inlay the color, but I STRONGLY recommend you get shellac in the groove first to avoid the paint or resin migrating into the grain and making the line "fuzzy".

[Mark Bolton]

Likely wouldnt be dead black but wood burner? Or finish the piece to seal up the grain, color the bottoms/sides with whatever you choose, before your finish coat? Either that or just gingerly color the bottoms/sides and cut the face back (sand) but thats always sketchy.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Use a laser to burn your lines in. Here's a walnut tray (unfinished). Ortur laser, about $200, great addition to my shop for things like this.

Happy to share more info on this process.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i452/cedwards874/CaracciolaTray(1).jpg

[Richard Coers]

I was really worried the first time I did inlay strips. I took a piece of 1/2" mdf and with stop cuts on the table saw, I made a template to use with a router and guide bushing. All 4 sides, one operation. Just had to come back in and square the corners. Worked great! Painting is not easy either. You often have to break the corner of the router cut to remove fuzz. Now where do you stop the paint? It makes getting a clean line almost impossible.

[mark mcfarlane]

Guided router since these are stopped grooves with the ends cleaned with a sharp (and narrow) chisel or knife. Then inlay the color, but I STRONGLY recommend you get shellac in the groove first to avoid the paint or resin migrating into the grain and making the line "fuzzy".

Thanks Jim, that sounds like a good approach. To keep the black lines clean I was going to shellac first, then cut the grooves on my router table. I wasn't think about the stain/paint seeping into the sides of the grooves and underneath the shellac. Ebony stain won't work if I shellac the grooves first but I can get some black paint and drizzle it into the groove.

Seems like I want to keep the grooves fairly shallow so I don't need to worry about painting the sides.

If I end up with a mess I can sand down the surface and shellac again over the black paint.

So,...

1. cut grooves and squares for plugs
2. Put in ebony plugs and plane/sand level
3. one coat of SealCoat, making sure sides of grooves are coated
3b. tape around grooves 'just in case' there are drips,...
4. paint black in groves
5. resand if necessary, and apply another coat of sealcoat where sanded
6. 2-4 coats of garnet shellac (the cherry plywood is a little darker than the face frame stock, it will be interesting to see what happens over a decade of UV exposure)
7. ARM-R-Seal satin top coat, possibly with a toner

FWIW, I should be able to do the grooves on my router table. I marked 'start cut' and 'stop cut' lines on the table and I can drop the piece to start cutting and turn off the router to stop cutting. I did a test and it was a pretty simple and easy process.

[mark mcfarlane]

Likely wouldnt be dead black but wood burner? Or finish the piece to seal up the grain, color the bottoms/sides with whatever you choose, before your finish coat? Either that or just gingerly color the bottoms/sides and cut the face back (sand) but thats always sketchy.

Thanks Mark, all helpful ideas I have incorporated in the process I put in another post in this thread.

[mark mcfarlane]

Use a laser to burn your lines in. Here's a walnut tray (unfinished). Ortur laser, about $200, great addition to my shop for things like this.

Happy to share more info on this process.



That's an awesome idea Chris ! No time on this project to order a new tool, but I can see a laser in my future.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks Richard for the help.

[Warren Lake]

The lazer looks excellent.

If I didnt have a way to do that id do a test sample and router the slot, tape off and blow NGR stain from a three feet away pointed fan. You might be ale to tape first then router and get a clean cut on tape edges and maybe not. To verify that id use 3M green auto body tape which is a standard in car shops.

NGR goes on as a mist coat so a few passes, it flashes off fast and dry almost instantly. Likely be a better choice than a wiping stain slow dry then would suck into the porous wood shown and see it in the pores. Peel your tape off and go straight to your usual finish.

[Mark Bolton]

Any paint/stain option is going to be sketchy at the least. Those plans should have a backfire warning printed right on the front of the can. That is unless you have the option to sand back hard and even then stain is a no-go and paint likely wont look very crisp. That was why I figured even filing down a shoe for a woodburning iron just to the correct width of your routed slot and with a radius on the end(s) to match the bit, you may get a nice dead black especially with low-ish heat. But it still has the backfire potential but much less so.

Pretty much anything would be faster than a true inlay if you could eliminate the backfire (drips, bleed, burn not dark enough)

[Phil Mueller]

One more idea. You can get black dyed veneer. Just cut a strip the same size as the bottom of the groove and glue it in.

[mark mcfarlane]

There have been lots of great ideas and support here. Thank you one and all.

Maybe I'll just do one cabinet and an inlay. As I said, these cabinets are part of a tight production schedule and I'm doing many parts of it. Today I am correcting mistakes made by a 4 man paint crew yesterday. Gotta get the face frames on before the granite and brick crews come.

[Jim Becker]

I've used the technique I mentioned above for signage quite a bit, Mark...recess, seal, paint. I do agree with Mr Bolton that you may need to re-sand the top surface to insure you have a crisp line which would remove the shellac from the top, but that's easily restored if necessary for your intended finishing regimen.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks Jim, I'll do a test later in the week.

[Bill McNiel]

Template guided router, Wenge inlays ripped to width on table saw and planed/card scraped to flush fit with a Waterlox finish. Pretty straightforward and easy.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I do a lot of this with my CNC router. As others have said and seal the wood. I then use Oramask or MacTac shelf paper stuck to the surface. Then route. Now you have a stuck down "stencil". You can spray the paint or brush it in. Remove the stencil and the lines are perfect.

Here is an example FWIW.

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[Jeff Roltgen]

Another option, which I've done, albeit quite some time ago:
Cut your grooves as planned, just lay masking tape down prior to cutting. A downcut spiral is probably best, but know I did it with a straight one with no trouble.
Mix epoxy - medium set time, like 60-90 minute stuff to allow a bit of working time to pour/ladle/spread. Color with black dye or UTC from local paint store, and throw in a decent amount of graphite powder.
Remove tape, sand flush, finish processes as you normally would.
- No worries about paint bleed, as the thick epoxy doesn't wick like that, and will cure fairly rapidly
- Graphite powder adds a little shimmer that makes it pop, if you feel that will enhance the final look.
- Low tech, and can easily do a test sample to proof the look / establish confidence going forward on the actual piece.

Jeff

[Warren Lake]

the alchohal NGR stain I said would work. It flashes instantly other stains no they would bleed into the pores and travel.

Mark said he wanted a groove and somewhere this has morphed into inlay. Maybe that would be okay as well but he showed a photo of what he wanted.

[andy bessette]

...Graphite powder...

The Gougeon brothers (WEST epoxy) pioneered the use of graphite powder in epoxy for simulating deck caulking in boat construction. Produces a nice matte finish after sanding.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks everyone for the help. Here is the procedure I settled on after testing:

Black painted groove and plug procedure



Drum sand cherry at 150 grit
Route grooves
Sand inside grooves @ 320 grit using metal straight edge
Install plugs

Clamp small metal square as a horizontal mortise guide
Mortise holes for plugs by hand
Orient plug grain and glue in plugs
Plane and sand plugs level @ 220 grit


Two quick coats of SealCoat, making sure sides of grooves are coated
Mask/tape around grooves 'just in case' there are paint drips,...
Paint black acrylic in groves
Dry overnight
Drum sand all face frame pieces @ 220 grit
Assemble face frames
Orbital sand at 220
Reapply one coat sealcoat (to reseal wood before garnet)
Two coats garnet shellac
Two coats ARM-R-Seal satin


And here is what it looks like. The pic doesn't include the arm-r-seal satin final coats, which should improve the results by knocking down the uneven sheen in the groove.

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There is a little extra buildup of garnet shellac around the grooves but it's not visible unless you zoom in the photo 'larger than life'.

Now I just need a little more practice on my hand mortising for the plugs.

[Jim Becker]

Really excellent job, Mark!

[mark mcfarlane]

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Thanks everyone for the help. Here is the final result. I still have a bunch of stonework to do (split face travertine) and some drawers to build for the far left cabinet.

[mark mcfarlane]

And some 'context' views

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[andy bessette]

Well done.

[derek labian]

A lovely finished product.

[Jim Becker]

Wow...looks great, Mark!!!

[ChrisA Edwards]

Those turned out beautiful. Nicely done.

[Phil Mueller]

Beautiful work, Mark! Maybe I missed it, but what method/process did you end up using?

[Bill Dufour]

FYI: Fumed oak will turn dark dark black. I believe walnut will darken when fumed also. Probably cheaper and easier to source and fume yourself.
Bill D

[Jim Becker]

FYI: Fumed oak will turn dark dark black. I believe walnut will darken when fumed also. Probably cheaper and easier to source and fume yourself.
Bill D
He's working in cherry, Bill. And the darkening is only in the recesses.

[mark mcfarlane]

Beautiful work, Mark! Maybe I missed it, but what method/process did you end up using?

Hi Phil, the process I used was in post #23 in this thread. I didn't do the final sealcoat step on the soffit/freeze piece (the 21' long groove). The final drum sand at 220 grit removed ALL the previous sealcoat so I didn't need to sealcoat again. The last sealcoat was in the original process because I thought I might not sand off the first sealcoat step and I wanted consistency on every board.

It took about an hour to hand paint the 21' long black groove. The entire process is fairly cumbersome but worked well. I am retired and had fun doing the work. Having a drum sander helped a lot.

I continue to enjoy working with wood and trying new things and try very hard to not get in a hurry and just have fun and patience.

I received a lot of help from this forum on this project, so thanks again to everyone that pitched in.

[mark mcfarlane]

Better pics of the completed 'black groove' project. Thanks again to everyone that helped.


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[ChrisA Edwards]

Very nice accent. Bet you're real pleased.