How'd they do that?

[Matt Ocel]

My wife recently bought a cutting board like the one attached. Mesquite with turquoise inlay. How do they inlay stone into wood?

[Dwayne Watt]

It looks like an epoxy inlay from the photo.

[Peter Quinn]

My guess is this is a serving tray more than a cutting board as it may be ill advised to take fine cutlery to a stone surface inlay. I have no idea how they did it though.

[Matt Ocel]

Its real turquoise, and its a cutting board, although my wife just uses it as a decoration or something like that.

[John Dugo]

If you were to actually cut on it, the wood would be destroyed. That's why real cutting boards are end grain.

[Matt Ocel]

If you were to actually cut on it, the wood would be destroyed. That's why real cutting boards are end grain.

True - But "How'd they do that?"


They have more than just cutting boards.


http://www.amerheritage.com/salespages/treestump/furniture1.htm

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Matt.....I can tell you how turners do it. They take powdered or turquoise bits....fill the crack and then pour in thinned epoxy or superglue. After it the glue dries, they finish turn, sand and apply a finish. If you look at CSUSA you'll see you can buy powered/crushed gemstones for filling cracks and divots.

[John Dugo]

Don't know, but IMHO it looks like it's an epoxy. I know you said it's turquoise, but some of the pictures look like only the areas that have stress cracks have the turquoise.

[Matt Ocel]

AHHHHH! Powder turquoise and epoxy. Now its coming to me. I'll look into that. Thanks guys.
I luv SMC:)

[Dwayne Watt]

Do a Google or other search on "inlay materials" and you will find crushed turquoise stone dust and other interesting things that can be mixed with epoxy or instant glues to place color into wood. As mentioned earlier, wood turners do this frequently. IMHO, this looks to be what you have on your hands. In any case, it is a really handsome serving tray/cutting board/display item.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Some people use real turquoise and either buy a granular form or crush it, or some use Inlace. I've never done turquoise but have played around with a few other things. The easiest way is probably the same way I fill cracks in mesquite. I use wood flour cement. It's a pretty thin petroleum based product. For crack patching mix fine mesquite sawdust with it and use a putty knife to fill cracks, let it cure and sand off. Epoxy will work fine but is expensive. I have a friend who made mesquite flooring and when you're faced with crack filling in hundreds of square feet of flooring epoxy isn't practical. The wood flour cement goes for less than $30/gallon; it's mixed with sawdust and squeegeed on, let it cure and then use a floor sander. Mixing sawdust with wood glue will work but the glue usually shrinks so much when it dries it may take two or even three shots to get a fill. The alternative of using mesquite without cracks is not feasible, if you know how prone mesquite is to having cracks.

For your cutting board it's probably epoxy mixed with either granulated turquoise or Inlace.

[Brian Kerley]

One of the guys at my local lumberjard did something similar to fill a void in a large mequite table and I asked him about it yesterday. What he does was just take some bits of turqoise (not necessarily the powder), mixes it with epoxy and just shoves it into the crack. Let it dry, sand/scrape flush and you are set.