Popular Post Isaac Posted October 1, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 I'm working on a small cabinet for my bathroom. I decided the top would be a great place to try out some inlay work. It is small and independent of the rest of the furniture piece, so if something went wrong, it would be simple enough to fashion a new one for another attempt. The cabinet will be made of cherry, and I decided to go for a ribbon of walnut around the perimeter of the top and a compass rose of walnut and maple. The ribbon was straightforward enough, just routed a 1/4" track. I stopped short of the corners to avoid any monkey business and just carved the last inch or so by hand. The only hiccup was the track around the curved side of the top. The track was perfectly smooth. I thought I could safely bend the rhythm the required curve, but it snapped during the glue up placement, so I've got some minor damage to repair. Overall, I'm happy with it. Also, I did match grain direction, so no concerns with movement. I should have taken shots of making the compass rose, but the process was actually pretty straight forward. I glued pieces of walnut and maple together and planed down to thickness. This meant I only had to make 4 pieces for the major arrow points, and 4 more pieces for the smaller arrow points. The most important step was making sure the inner corners were true 90 degrees. the outer points could be slightly off and you'd never know, though I do think I got a good match up. I cut the smaller arrow heads custom for each location. Glued up, it was about 1/8 inch thick. I used the blue tape method @derekcohen turned me onto to mark it, with a marking knife. The tape on the arrowhead marks up, so I could remember the orientation. Cut away the tape I carved away the inner material with a router and cleaned up all edges with marking knife and chisels. This really didn't take as long as anticipated. Glued and installed. A couple sliver gaps to deal with, but for a first go, I'm happy. A good number of the edges are right on the money. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodbutcher Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 Looks great Isaac, awesome job on that inlay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 Looks great to me. I fooled around with inlays years ago but didn't have much demand from my customers so I haven't done much lately. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 I'd say you did well, Isaac! Did you have a pattern that dictated the angle of the points, or did you make it up on the fly? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted October 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 7 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said: I'd say you did well, Isaac! Did you have a pattern that dictated the angle of the points, or did you make it up on the fly? A bit of both. I looked at some examples online and then drew something up in sketchup that I thought was about right. There are so many examples online, all a little different, so I think it kind of begs to be personalized. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted October 2, 2018 Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 I did a coffe table similar to that a few years ago. Same method. Looks good. I learned 2 lessons when I did mine. Since you are inlaying it into a solid top you can expect the top to move which will try to compress or stretch the compass rose. In my case it tried to compress the rose and after a while I could feel slight "ridges" around the rose. I could just sand lightly and add another coat but I haven''t bothered. Nicely done. I like it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted October 2, 2018 Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 Solid work. I've been meaning to try some inlay work for a long time. Some day I'll get around to one of my dream projects, ya know one of those projects that takes a couple years to finish. I want to put a sports logo in a coffee table. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted October 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 18 minutes ago, Ronn W said: I did a coffe table similar to that a few years ago. Same method. Looks good. I learned 2 lessons when I did mine. Since you are inlaying it into a solid top you can expect the top to move which will try to compress or stretch the compass rose. In my case it tried to compress the rose and after a while I could feel slight "ridges" around the rose. I could just sand lightly and add another coat but I haven''t bothered. Nicely done. I like it. Yeah I've wondered in the past how marquetry guys handle it, I've seen all sorts of flowers and such in-layed in solid wood. Those would have to result in some issues, but mostly they seem to get away with it. I guess I will keep an eye on it and see what happens. 3 minutes ago, Chestnut said: Solid work. I've been meaning to try some inlay work for a long time. Some day I'll get around to one of my dream projects, ya know one of those projects that takes a couple years to finish. I want to put a sports logo in a coffee table. I've thought like that in the past. Now I'm kind of trying to push myself with every project and just letting it take as long as it does. That being said, this was inlay was actually surprisingly fast. Most of my stuff is furnishing my own house, so I'm shifting towards doing my very best instead of rushing, which is a bad tendency of mine. Its also the reason I started doing hand cut dovetails on things. I'd never learn and become any good at them if I didn't just start doing them. Still got plenty of room to grow though! I guess if I ever fully furnish my house, i can start over again, replacing the worst pieces with better stuff and renewing it all. Or (more likely) start making more pieces for other people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted October 2, 2018 Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 38 minutes ago, Isaac said: 've thought like that in the past. Now I'm kind of trying to push myself with every project and just letting it take as long as it does. That being said, this was inlay was actually surprisingly fast. Most of my stuff is furnishing my own house, so I'm shifting towards doing my very best instead of rushing, which is a bad tendency of mine. Its also the reason I started doing hand cut dovetails on things. I'd never learn and become any good at them if I didn't just start doing them. Still got plenty of room to grow though! I guess if I ever fully furnish my house, i can start over again, replacing the worst pieces with better stuff and renewing it all. Or (more likely) start making more pieces for other people. I"m sort of shooting for the middle of getting things done quickly but still trying new things. Recently I've been working on ways to make complicated items faster and more efficient. I'm also endlessly working on increasing quality. I've made enough furniture for one house but threw it all away when I determined that it wasn't worth moving long distance. I gave a lot of it to friends where i moved from but some of it was unsafe or just awful and got burned. It's nice being able to start over and stick with a theme and a single wood species. I learned that i could work with cherry for the rest of my life and be content. I also have a long list of family members that would love to have items made for them. So maybe in the future I'll get to be able to pay for some of my tools. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted October 2, 2018 Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 Very nice Issac! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted October 2, 2018 Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 Very nice looking. Its the personal little details like this that make your hand made items special. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted October 2, 2018 Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 Issac, Very well done. Did you use double back tale to hold the compass rose in place while using the marking knife around it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted October 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2018 38 minutes ago, K Cooper said: Issac, Very well done. Did you use double back tale to hold the compass rose in place while using the marking knife around it? Thank you. I did not. I was worried that if I used tape strong enough to reliably hold the rose, I would probably break the rose in the process of removing the tape, so I just pinned it with my hand and made my way around with the marking knife. Initially I just cut deep enough to cut the underlying blue tape. After that I removed the blue tape, and went back around with a metal straight edge and the marking knife and cut much deeper guide marks. Then I used a straight router bit and removed the interior, leaving approximately 1/8 " all the way around which was fairly easily removed using various chisels and the marking knife, by hand. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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