Blackswanwood
Old Oak
I posted some pictures of a jewellery box that I made a bit ago and there was a request that I post how I do the inlay. Having been a bit busy with work and a bit of civil engineering to get ready for a new wood shed I finally got around to a bit of woodwork.
I've learned doing this that doing one of these posts is much harder than it seems ... I keep forgetting to take pictures. If anyone has any suggestions on my method please comment - there is a lot of experience on here and there is no such thing as a monopoly on good ideas.
Having has a root around in my offcuts I found a nice piece of cherry. It planed down to 10mm thickness and has an interesting pattern in it. Most of my boxes are square of proportioned using the Golden Ratio but this one is long and thin. At the moment I'm thinking it will be a posh pencil box but we'll see.
This is the construction

I have just realised that I don't know what the joint is called - a lapped butt joint? I rough cut them by hand (tenon saw and chisel) and finish them on the router table.
Bubinga veneer was to hand and even though it's highly figured and a small box I still decided to bookmatch it. Basically I need identical rectangles half the size of the top from two consecutive sheets. I align the sheets and use a mirror to find the pattern I want and then just cut through both sheets at the same time with a scalpel.


The substrate for the bottom of the box is 2mm MDF this is sandwiched between two veneer sheets (no bookmatch) making 3mm overall thickness. The top is 4mm MDF with the bookmatch on one side and a single sheet of veneer on the underside making 5mm. The picture above is the top with a centre line to align the bookmatch - if it's not straight it looks naff!
To get a clean and matching edge for the bookmatch I align the two pieces, sandwich them between a couple of pieces of scrap and use the shooting board.

I then align the book match and tape it together with masking tape. Stretching the tape slightly improves the result but if it curls like this you have to take care that the edges are butting up against each other when placing in position. If one overlaps the other it's firewood once it comes out of the veneer press.

Here's where I forgot to take pictures until I had put the top and bottom in the press ...

What I should have shown you is that the top and bottom substrates have had Titebond Cold Veneer glue applied to both sides before sandwiching between their respective veneers. These are then placed between 18mm MDF Boards in the press. The total "stack" is 18mm MDF Board, Neoprene sheet, absorbent paper sheet, bottom veneer, MDF substrate, top veneer, absorbent paper, Neporene sheet and 18mm MDF Board.
The absorbent paper deals with any bleed through of the glue.
To be continued.
I've learned doing this that doing one of these posts is much harder than it seems ... I keep forgetting to take pictures. If anyone has any suggestions on my method please comment - there is a lot of experience on here and there is no such thing as a monopoly on good ideas.
Having has a root around in my offcuts I found a nice piece of cherry. It planed down to 10mm thickness and has an interesting pattern in it. Most of my boxes are square of proportioned using the Golden Ratio but this one is long and thin. At the moment I'm thinking it will be a posh pencil box but we'll see.
This is the construction

I have just realised that I don't know what the joint is called - a lapped butt joint? I rough cut them by hand (tenon saw and chisel) and finish them on the router table.
Bubinga veneer was to hand and even though it's highly figured and a small box I still decided to bookmatch it. Basically I need identical rectangles half the size of the top from two consecutive sheets. I align the sheets and use a mirror to find the pattern I want and then just cut through both sheets at the same time with a scalpel.


The substrate for the bottom of the box is 2mm MDF this is sandwiched between two veneer sheets (no bookmatch) making 3mm overall thickness. The top is 4mm MDF with the bookmatch on one side and a single sheet of veneer on the underside making 5mm. The picture above is the top with a centre line to align the bookmatch - if it's not straight it looks naff!
To get a clean and matching edge for the bookmatch I align the two pieces, sandwich them between a couple of pieces of scrap and use the shooting board.

I then align the book match and tape it together with masking tape. Stretching the tape slightly improves the result but if it curls like this you have to take care that the edges are butting up against each other when placing in position. If one overlaps the other it's firewood once it comes out of the veneer press.

Here's where I forgot to take pictures until I had put the top and bottom in the press ...

What I should have shown you is that the top and bottom substrates have had Titebond Cold Veneer glue applied to both sides before sandwiching between their respective veneers. These are then placed between 18mm MDF Boards in the press. The total "stack" is 18mm MDF Board, Neoprene sheet, absorbent paper sheet, bottom veneer, MDF substrate, top veneer, absorbent paper, Neporene sheet and 18mm MDF Board.
The absorbent paper deals with any bleed through of the glue.
To be continued.