make yourself some edge inlay

click the photos to enlarge them ...

back in  the mid 80s i started adding inlays to my designs in an attempt to stand out from the

crowd of shaker style furniture that a lot of the makers were putting out there then ...  

get yourself a problem ... figure out how to solve it .. fun!

you'll have to scroll through a couple posts at that link to see the edge inlays described here ..

this photo shows the last stage of the process.  the blank has

been made and cut into strips. the edge of the top has been routed

and i just have to neatly glue them all in and flush them up.

add a little finish and send it on its way.

update ... see the end of this post ... 

well, it has been a while since i personally made one of these blocks

and i was fortunate when i recently edited the shop to bundle up

these gluing jigs and put them in the cellar, and lucky to find them 

yesterday when i needed them .. it still took a little head scratching

to get the job done.  once you decide the design, and the options are 

infinite, the first step is to make the center block from alternating 

strips of different color woods. in this case, ebony and hard maple ..

the first jig requires a bunch of clamps and some elmers white glue 

for a long open time

the blue clamps squeeze the strips together, but you have to do a little dance

where you clamp them flat lightly, then squeeze em, then clamp them flat

a little tighter, then a little flatter .. back and forth .. you get the idea ...

next you have to smooth the glued up center section.  the 'meat' of the sandwich ..

you can do this with out a wide belt sander, and i did a lot of it 

before we finally bought some real tools in 2001 ... in the photo above 

you can see the bit i use to rout the edge of the table. it's best to

do that before adding the thin top and bottom strips so you know 

how thick you want the block to be once it is glued up ..

next make the top and bottom pieces, the 'bread' ..

i generally shoot for a thin 3/8ths for the center section,

and a big sixteenth for the top and bottom layers

then you want to squeeze the whole thing together between some

blocks coated with non stick tape and as many clamps as you can fit ..

once that sets, you've got your block and you just need to set your

fence to the right thickness. the maple board fits over the inlay block and

pushes the cut strips through to clear the blade.  repeat ... insert video here ,,,

2/7 ... all glued up now .. first coat of finish is on the bottom of the top ... 

a few steps to get there ... 

sand the ends of the strips so they mate and the corners are mitered ..

add glue and masking tape

scrape and sand it smooth and flush with the cherry

drag out your box of odds and ends pieces and reflect ... 

the cherry and black paint and inlays is actually what i have

referred to in the past as my 'studio style' ..

blast from the past! ... lots of old portfolio photos at that link ..

all for now ..

.

a room screen from 2006

i was looking for tables for my 'what kind of dining tables do you make' post and came across these photos of a 6' x 6' custom room screen we made back in 2006.  it's really one of my favorite pieces of all time, and i wish we could put this concept to more use in our regular work.  it takes a special kind of adventurous and trusting client though, and that type of client has been somewhat less common these last 5 years.  maybe 2014 we'll see one. the year is off to a terrific start .... click the photos to enlarge them.

 

how many kinds of wood in this one ??? ... let's see.  you've got your peruvian walnut, your quarter sawn cherry, your vertical grain fir, some quilted big leaf maple, some bubinga, some curly redwood, some western red cedar, some maple burl on the tops of the frames .... i think that about covers it, except for some quartersawn pine diagonal strips balancing the backs of the solid wood veneered mdf panels. 

we originally discussed painting the different woods with transparent colors like i do on my woodburnings, but once the client saw the colors of the woods, she decided to stick with the clear finish.

i like it, but someday i'm gonna do some screen or panel or table top like this with some painted color, like a 3d wood burning or 3d painting.  where is that client ???

 

it was a really fun piece, partly inspired by the book, 'the quilts of gee's bend' , and partly by some of my woodburnings that were hung on my office wall when the client came to discuss her concept.

 

these are the only process photos i discovered, though i'm sure there are a few hanging around somewhere.

some woodburnings

Greene and Greene Style Inlay

Close up of the finished chair


My friend and golf partner, Bill LaBerge is a fine furnituremaker, inspired by furniture of Greene and Grene and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and we often share our skills and resources. In fact, within a two mile radius of my shop there are a total of four custom furnituremakers, myself, Bill, Steve Holman, and Bill Tate, (no website), all with employees and we all cooperate and help one another, sharing our tools, our lumber orders, and our particular skills and expertise. Bill recently had a comission for some Blacker House style chairs that involved 12 inlaid backsplats. To be more precise, 24 curved, through mortises, 12 inlay pockets and 120 pieces of pretty tiny inlay. After completing and photocopying his handmade prototype, he asked if we could do the preparatory inlay work for him on our CNC to speed the process along. We scanned his full sized photocopy into our CAD program, created the drawings and the protoype below, (with donut), made the improvements he suggested, created a second, more finished prototype for his approval and we were off. The splats were curved so we made extra deep pockets and thicker inlays so everything could be leveled off. He cut the through square holes on his mortiser after we were finished doing our work. There was still some handwork for him to do after we were through, but essentially, the inlay pieces fit right into the holes cut by our router. Total elapsed time per splat for the work described above including the prototyping and programming .... approximately one hour per splat. If you don't think the Hall brothers would have loved this machine, you never tried to make a set of custom chairs with inlays and make a profit at the same time .... Please contact us for custom inlay work and custom CNC work at
802 867 5541 ... Thanks ... Click the pictures for better viewing ...

Drawing Bill's protoype inlay on the laptop, creating the tool paths

Sample inlay pockets with donut

Stool and chair splats ... our inlays off the router, on the right hand splat

First three of the sixty inlay 'stems'