After being distracted by a Maloof chair project and a few others I am finally getting back to my half finished set of knife cases. These are the slant top, veneered boxes with a serpentine front, that hold a set of silverware. The project is is illustrated in the journal of the association of Period Furniture Makers from a few years ago. On the edges, there is a banding a total of 1/8 inch wide, which is comprised of alternating white and black triangles. (bases of the triangles facing the edges of the banding) The triangles are very small, and so far I have made the banding by chopping tiny right triangles off the corners of squares of veneer, and then manually placing each individual one with hide glue, on a backing strip of poplar veneer. This is extremely tedious and I was wondering if anyone could suggst a more efficient method. Thanks a lot.
Jay
Replies
Jay,
I make straight sections of inlays like that, by taking solid stock of the contrasting woods and planing them to the exact same thickness. Then chop a miter on the end with a miter saw or table saw. Set the bandsaw to that same angle and set the fence to produce an imperceptible flat at the point of the triangle, this will keep the finished inlay a consistent thickness. Saw off a triangle on the bandsaw, and go back to mitersaw/tablesaw to clean that cut up, and repeat this action until you have enough pieces to make the banding. Then you just sandwich them between face veneers, and when dry slice off individual strips of banding on the bandsaw. This far more difficult to describe than it is to do, so I hope I made it clear.
The curved sections, aren't quite as easy. My guess is they would have to be assembled in a curved form, as it would be pretty difficult to bend that type of banding. The following link has some information on curved inlays.
http://rlmillard.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/index.html
Rob Millard
Rob,
First I did not get what you said about the imperceptible flat. More importantly , these triangles are TINY. Each triangle is about 1/8 inch in size which would create a piece of wood that is so small it would be likely to chip out or be dangerous to work with on a table saw. I do understand the ripping off strips of banding from the sandwich. If you could scan a hand drawn diagram it might help, if you have time.
Finally, since the triangles are black and white, I am using black dyed Sycamore veneer to make the black triangles, I don't have solid ebony to cut into solid triangles. I could get some, but it seems like there would be a lot of waste. Still, what I have been doing is so tedious that it's impractical, so I want to understand your method. Thanks a lot.
Jay
Jay,
The Lash article was a little thin on the details when it came to the inlays.
The method I use won't work with veneer, it has to be solid stock. The
The miter/table saw is only used to true up the cut, not to saw a piece free. The piece is sawn free on the bandsaw where there is little danger to the operator, but you may loose a few pieces even with a zero clearance insert. The flat at the point just insures that all the pieces are of the exact same height and that the resulting banding will have a uniform width.
Here is a step by step description.
1. mill the solid stock to the required thickness (in your case 1/8") and about 2" wide. Any wider than 2" and it gets difficult to mill and glue the triangles. Make sure the edges are parallel.
2. determine the angle of one side of the triangle, and set the miter/table saw to that angle. Then saw the both ends of each piece of stock on the saw (to minimize the number of trips between tools)
3. Move to the bandsaw and set it at the same angle as you used before. Set the fence to have the triangle come out so that it is not reduced in thickness (that tiny flat I spoke of before).
4. using consistent hand pressure, carefully saw off a triangle. It may take a few tries to get the proper hand placement and pressure, because you are working to very tight tolerances. I use coolblocks on the bandsaw and normally set them the thickness of a piece of paper away from the blade, but with work this small, I'd set them in firm contact with the blade and raise the guide to just let the stock clear.
5. go back to the miter/table saw and clean up the cut left by the bandsaw and repeat steps 3,4,5 until you have the proper number of piece for your banding.
6. Take a face veneer and apply some glue, and lay in one color of triangles making sure they butt together. You'll have to work quickly from here on out, as the glue will want to curl up the veneer. Fortunately the lengths required for the box are short.
7. Now apply glue to the triangles you just glued in place (they will look like a bunch of roofs) and lay in the other color triangles.
8. Apply glue to a piece of face veneer and lay it on top of the triangles you just put in place and apply clamps. The glue will make things slide around, so use a handscrew or some other kind of clamp that doesn't apply a twisting motion to the pieces forcing them out of alignment.
9. When dry, you can plane one edge of the "blank and glue it to a sacrificial board and when that is dry you can use the bandsaw to rip off the strips and inlay them. The sacrificial board allows you to keep your hands away from the blade, and will allow you to use all or at least nearly all of the banding.
The curved sections would be made in a similar way, but will take much longer, considering the time spent making and using the curved form.
Rob Millardhttp://www.americanfederalperiod.com
Rob, Thanks. The only thing that is still unclear is step 5. If you cut a triangular strip free from the block using the band saw, then you are trying to rip along the edge of a tiny 1/8 inch by 2 inch long triangular strip on the table saw, and I can't see how you could do that safely.Also, I dont know how you would do the curved section on the front of the box using a curved form. Thanks for your patience.
Jay
Jay,
I think the problem with step 5 is my poor choice of words.
You use the miter/table saw, to clean up the angle cut on the 1/8" x 2" piece of wood. The piece cut off on the bandsaw is used as is, although it may need a little sanding to remove some splintering. The bandsaw can make an accurate cut, but it is a good idea to have one side of the triangle cut on a more precise saw, like a miter saw or table saw.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have not made a inlay exactly like you need. It would be done in much the same way as the blog entry link, with the only difference being you be better off using a concave form as opposed to the convex form in the blog entry.
I hope this helped, but if not feel free to contact me by phone or email using the contact information on my website.
Rob Millardhttp://www.americanfederalperiod.com
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