Wood & Metal

[Doug Reesor]

I used Gorilla glue to put sheet copper between the walnut in the base of this segmented bowl and am pleased with the look. I needed to rough up the copper to get good adhesion but want to hear about other people's experience about wood and metal mixed media. Is there any glues that are better or worse to use in this type of application?

[Tim A. Mitchell]

Looks good, but kind of hard to see in the pic.

I would think epoxy would be good to use as well. Yuo should still rough it up some for adhesion.

[David Walser]

Doug,

Metal can make an interesting accent in a wooden object. My concern with the way you did it is the wood's going to try an move with changes in moisture while the copper will not. That's got to stress the joints something fierce. I can't tell which way the grain's running in your bowl nor can I tell the size of the bowl, so wood movement may not be a problem in this bowl -- but I think the method is apt to cause problems in other circumstances even if not here.

Note: If you had inlaid the metal into the wood, I don't think there would be a potential for a problem. There, the solid wood would be free to move around the metal. Gluing metal in between wooden segments may look the same, but I fear the results may be different.

If I'm wrong (again), I'm sure others will chime in to correct me (again).

By the way, I like the appearance of the bowl.

[Harvey Mushman]

E6000 or Goop for inlay. Both of these glues work very well for this purpose. These glues are flexible when cured and incredibly strong. Turkey Call makers will use it to set a glass sound board and slate friction surface. This is what I use to set hand hammered copper into wood. You are on your own for accent strips. Metal won't move like wood. I've used epoxy with aluminum and wood much the same way in which you did and it failed in 6 months.