Replies

1. 
   douglas2cats | Mar 02, 2005 05:26pm | #1

   Since you're going to stain it, I'd go with something darker against the oak, like walnut or even ebony. A darker wood is going to show less color change after the stain. It's just going to get even darker. With a lighter wood, you risk having it blend in with the oak too much if it's something that absorbs the stain easily. This is assuming you don't try to mask off or use some sort of sealer coat on the inlay before you apply the stain.

   As far as techniques, I'm assuming you're going to use a router. If you're going to use handtools, just ignore most of this. Here's a couple of things that work well for me:

   Use a decent quality edge guide that doesn't have any play in the fence. Stop routing just shy of the end and clean up the corners with a sharp chisel.

   If you have a laminate trimmer, it's a bit easier to use on smaller scale inlay work than a full size router. A foot switch is also pretty handy so you can keep both hands on the tool as it starts up.

   If you're cutting your own inlay strips, use the same router bit that you will cut the inlay channel with, and cut a same depth groove in a scrap piece about 6" long for use as a gauge block. Slide your strips through the groove. They shouldn't be loose. You want them to slide through with a little bit of resistance. Wherever they hang up, touch them up with a block plane or sandpaper until they will slide through the slot. Most of my inlaying is with 1/16" thickness. I usually cut my strips about 1/4" wide and route the channel 3/32" to 1/8" deep. I'd have less work to do flushing the inlay up with chisels, block planes, scrapers, sandpaper, etc., if I didn't cut them so wide, but I just find anything narrower to be too fragile while I'm trying to cut and trim the end miters.

   Get one of those plastic glue injector syringes to put a thin bead of glue down into the inlay channel. Don't put any glue on the inlay strip or you'll just make a mess as you're trying to get it inserted in the channel. Blue painters tape works fine as a "clamp" while the glue dries.

   If you build it - he will come.

2. 
   joinerswork | Mar 02, 2005 06:01pm | #2

   ton,

   It's easiest to use a naturally contrasting wood, either lighter or darker, and no stain.

   If you must stain the oak, then you will likely want a lighter colored wood for the inlay.  You can either "stop out" the inlay before staining, by painting it with shellac or lacquer and a fine brush, or use a stain that acts selectively, like ammonia fuming, lye or potassium dichromate.  It is important to experiment first to get the results you like. 

   A pigment stain can sometimes be used on a coarse grained porous wood if the inlay used is very dense, and less accepting of the stain, like boxwood or hard maple.  You will have less contrast with this method, however, since the inlay will still absorb some of the color (unless you use something like plastic strips or metal, for the inlay).

   Regards,

   Ray