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Thread: Advice needed on marquetry with hide glue

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    278

    Advice needed on marquetry with hide glue

    I am hoping to get some advice on marquetry with hide glue. In the past, I have made several moderately complicated marquetry projects with good success using Titebond cold press glue and a vacuum press. I assemble the marquetry on blue tape, veneer tape the face side, remove the blue tape and press.

    I have recently become interested in using hot hide glue and hammer veneering for this process due to multiple potential advantages (curved surfaces without making complicated cauls, wrapping veneers around finished structure, etc). I’m concerned that trying to hammer a complicated panel composed of thin commercial veneers covered with gum tape is going to be a problem. I’ve read everything I can find on the process including some of the info from the American School of French Marquetry (great stuff from Patrick Edwards) that depends on using assembly boards made of special craft paper only made in Europe - not something I currently have. He also seems to be using thicker shop sawn veneers. There is lots of info on hammer veneering in general but not so much of the nitty gritty when dealing with complex marquetry pictures.

    I am hoping some of you do this routinely and would be willing to share your workflow - specifically the little details of how you assemble and stick down the finished sheets. Do you hammer or resort to presses even with the hide glue? Does all the hard squeegee work mess up the marquetry and cause you to lose pieces? Do you use veneer tape on the show face and, if so and it gets covered with hide glue, is there any issue in removing to expose the show face? Do I really need to resort to sourcing this exotic craft paper to do this right?

    Thanks in advance for any detailed info.

    Rick
    Richard Link

    **********************

  2. #2
    Richard,
    I just came across this post from January. I'm going to assume you're still interested in info, so here goes. Applying marquetry with a veneer hammer is not going to work out well. I encourage you to try it as an experiment, but the extremely high likelihood outcome is that you destroy the marquetry.

    I have learned marquetry from Patrick Edwards, and I encourage you to try the assembly board method. I wrote a blog detailing the method here: https://weshighfill.blogspot.com/201...ch-method.html. For what it's worth, I also imported several rolls of the european kraft paper from France and am selling the paper here in the States. It is available here: http://highfillcustomwoodworks.com/store/. Yes, to do this right you need this paper. I've tried other paper before, it doesn't work. That's why I went through the expense and hassle of importing several rolls, because I wanted to have my own stockpile of it. There was just a minimum order size, which was waaaay more than I should need in my lifetime.

    As far as the workflow, read my blog post linked above, it pretty much details out the process. Once you have the picture glued to the kraft paper and cut away from the board, you glue it down to the finished piece (hide glue) using clamps/cauls/press/something along those lines. Don't use a veneer hammer, unless you're doing it as an experiment and are OK with it not working out so well.

    Also, the assembly board method works just fine with the thin veneers commonly available here. You don't have​ to use thick veneer.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    santa clarita ca.
    Posts
    155
    i have layed up pieces to be curved on aircraft 3 ply,in the press. more stable than a veneer backer. used to get it from a place called anderson plywood.

  4. #4
    I've only observed someone doing marquetry with hide glue and he did it a piece at a time (this is with commercial, 1/42 inch veneer). The problem with hide glue is that the water in it can cause the veneer to expand. He would fit the next piece against the piece previously laid. I don't know how you would do really complex pieces, but the workshop had some finished complex pieces on shelves. The piece I observed was a geometric piece, not a floral piece, and he had the design drawn on the substrate. If a piece went outside the lines, he would trim it after gluing. The trimmed piece removed easily - I guess the hide glue did not set hard that quickly.

    Mike

    [I do all my marquetry and regular venee with modern glue.]
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 04-06-2018 at 10:45 AM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  5. #5
    The way you do marquetry with an assembly board has you cutting all the pieces at once, then assembling the picture. There is no fitting/tuning (usually) at the assembly stage. Best done using a chevalet, but a scrollsaw can be used, too. There are a couple different methods for cutting the pieces, one does not require the utmost accuracy, the other does.

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