Replies

1. 
   RMillard | Jan 08, 2010 06:26pm | #1

   Don,

   I recently made a games table and had fits with the black dyed veneer squares discoloring the maple veneer squares (the original piece used maple, not holly). On other such pieces I made using holly, I don’t even remember this being an issue.

   I ended up scraping the chess board with a super sharp scraper and followed with a Norton 3X 320 grit disk in the RO sander, which was hooked to the shop vac. Even with careful work, I had a few pockets of black dust lodge in the maple, which required a repeat of the scraping and sanding. I think some of this was my own fault for not paying attention to which side of the veneer had knife checks, as each tiny check trapped some black dust. I’m lucky I had this problem with maple veneer and not holly, because holly veneer is almost transparent and the repeated scraping/sanding would have allowed the mahogany ground to show through. .

   With solid ebony and holly inlays I have never had a problem

   Rob Millard

   http://www.americanfederalperiod.com

2. 
   SteveSchoene | Jan 08, 2010 09:12pm | #2

   I think a take-away from Rob's post is that planing or scraping does a more reliable job of avoiding the contamination of the light with the dark than sanding.

3. 
   Frank Vucolo | Jan 09, 2010 01:32am | #3

   Don,
   I've had that problem
   Don,

   I've had that problem with black-dyed and maple and with some rosewood/maple banding I made up. I eventually took an approach similar to Rob's. I worked everything flush with a plane and scraper, then very lightly sanded - by hand - vacuuming frequently with a brush attachment.

   The rosewood gave me a further suprise. Dust embedded in the rosewood that was not removed with the vacuum floated out when I applied finish (blonde shellac) and gave a rosey color to the maple areas. Arghhhh!

   I eventually had success by hitting the banding with compressed air to dislodge the dust, immediatly vacumming - air hose in one hand, vac hose in the other.

   I'll never make up banding with rosewood again!

   I'm about to make up some Ebony/Holly banding for a project and am encouraged by Rob's remarks that it has not been any problem for him. This is my first experience woth Gaboon Ebony.

   Frank