>BELIVE ME . . . This question is NOT inspired by Mr. Edwards ! Not even in my wildest dreams ! BUT . . . LOML "mentioned" that, with all the "pretty" of the stair saw , it might look even gooder with a green "inlay" in the palms of the handle. I've inlayed millitary challenge coins into model base mounts by tracing the coin and digging out a "boss" to the depth of the height of the coin then pressing them in. Is that a fairly traditional method ? For the saw handle I'm thinking finding ovals of "some green, stone or ceramic type material" and useing the same method. Thoughts ? Guidance ?
One approach is the one you described: you have an object and want to inlay it exactly as it is. You're going to scribe the object's outline onto the saw handle, but first undercut the bottom of the object a bit with a file, and scribe from the bottom. This will ensure a tight fit.
A second approach is where you have a design in mind, and are going to shape the inlay material to fit the design. This is covered in detail in various books--one I can recommend is Larry Robinson, 'The Art of Inlay'. Basically, draw your design on paper and make some copies. Glue one of your copies onto the inlay material and saw/rasp/file the object back to your pattern lines. Then undercut the inlay piece as above, and scribe it to the saw handle. When you dig out the design in the saw handle, you can level the bottom with a router, or else make a router by grinding a nail to the shape of a small chisel, and set this nail-chisel in a scrap of wood, exposing say 1/16" of the 'chisel', and you have a serviceable router. But--if you make a router, the issue is to make it so that you can see what you're doing. To glue, Larry Robinson says use CA glue (superglue).
The third method is one I've used, and can show you photos if you're interested. It's where you use wood for the inlay. For example, saw a veneer sheet of maple maybe 3/32" thick, and dye it green (like Patrick E. did). Or else use ebony or some colored wood and forget the dye. Remove your inlay pieces from the veneer by making gouge cuts. For instance, take a 5-sweep/30mm gouge and make a cut long grain to the veneer; turn the gouge around and make a mirror image cut, and you will lift out a canoe-shaped piece which is a bit under 30mm long. Make the same cuts in the saw handle, lift out the waste, and the green veneer 'canoe' will fit right in there. Hide glue is best to secure the piece. Use a scraper to clean up. Practice on scrap first, of course. An infinite number of designs are possible, depending on the gouges you own. If interested, let me know and I can describe further and show examples.
>Hey, thank you ! I've allways wondered how they inlay odd shapes. Not everything had "pre-determined" shapes. After I transfered my design for releif carving I understand making copies and reversing them (as needed). Just did'nt think of useing the same method for matching the boss to the piece to be inlayed. Eh Gods, don't learn anything ! Thanks again. Another cosmic mystery solved !
I'm still a raw learner of inlay techniques, so take that into account. The link below is to a learning project, where the bandings and inlays are done just about entirely with gouges and hide glue. For example, the tulip image on the upper leg of the table was made with 3 gouges, and the ebony drop below it was made with 1 gouge.
The main concept is that you use the tooling you own to both draw and execute the design. Draw the design right off the back of the gouges, and then use the same gouges to cut the inlay pieces and sink the design in the work.
I mentioned this technique to Steve because it's something that any of us can pick up quickly, using tools we mostly have. And it's fun.
>Hey, Wiley, what a piece! Marvellous job and a relatively easy technique. Thanks for sharing. The only minor criticism I'd have, without seeing it in person, is that the legs look a bit too busy. Perhaps the inlays too large. But what a first effort. I think it's shop shot time.
I made those bands as one-off strips. It would be possible--especially on the black/white Seymour band--to make up a "brick" and bandsaw 3/32" strips off it. If I were doing this for a living, that's what I'd do. But here's the one-off method for the black/white band. At the end, you'll probably ask 'what's the other method?', but actually it goes pretty quickly.
1. Materials. Sheets of 3/32" thick whitewood (holly, maple) and ebony veneer (bandsaw it).
2. Tools. 6-sweep/25mm gouge, hide glue, cutting gauge (for stringing on sides). That's an English 6-sweep. Oh, and a pair of forceps and a wet towel--you need these. Card scraper to clean up.
3. Make whitewood base 7/16" wide. Width counts. Each pair of ebony scallops should almost touch--this gives it snap--so the strip should be twice the amplitude of the scallop (3/16"+ each) plus 1/32" clearance. Works out to 7/16". The design works best when (a) each pair of ebony scallops almost touch, and (b) the scallops are set close together along the strip, leaving a fine apex of whitewood in between. The whitewood ends up making a string of diamonds, and the thing will be dynamic if you can get the apexes of the diamonds to just kiss the stringing, and if the pairs of scallops almost touch at their high points.
4. Pencil in control lines. With soft pencil, lay off cross marks every 1" along the whitewood base.
5. Scallop one edge of the base. Take your gouge and go down one edge of the whitewood base and cut out scallops, lining the gouge up between control lines.
6. Cut out the ebony scallops. With the same gouge, cut out as many ebony pieces as you will need, plus 5 or 10 extras. Now put the whole affair on a sheet of wax paper, prior to gluing. [NOTE: Tilt the gouge so that the strike is square to the work--the gouge will slightly undercut the whitewood base as well as the ebony pieces. This undercutting actually assists the fit.]
7. Do the first glue up. With forceps, pick up an ebony piece and dip it straight into the hot hide glue, bring it out dripping. Don't drip it off--press it dripping straight into the first slot on the whitewood base and hold it tight with fingers. After 10-20 seconds, the tack of the glue will take hold. Wipe fingers off on towel; pick up second ebony piece with forceps and repeat. Do this right down the strip until every slot is filled. [NOTE: Don't be neat with the glue--you want it in excess. As you proceed, the strip will be tacked down with glue to the wax paper--this keeps the band from curling. If you're too neat with the glue, the band will curl as it dries, which is bad though not fatal.]
8. At this point, you're looking at a gloppy mess--don't worry. Wait 20-30 minutes, and then lightly scrape off excess glue from top and bottom of band with scraper. If you tear out a scallop perchance, just redip a replacement scallop and reglue it, and wait some more before scraping clean. There are no irremedial mistakes with hide glue.
9. Cut scallops in the other side of the band. Just repeat the above steps for the second side. The key thing here is to make your gouge strikes a repeatable and close distance from the ebony pieces you just glued.
10. Wait 30 minutes, and clean up with a sharp scraper. Using a light touch, scrape the band down to bright wood--you don't want the glue to turn to glass before doing this. Now unstick band from wax paper with edge of scraper. NOTE 1: I like LV's superhard thin scrapers for this job. But any flexible scraper will be fine. NOTE 2: You're not going to plane the face of this band until it is installed in the work.
11. Plane edges straight and clean. Take a wooden plane in one hand--length doesn't matter--and band in the other hand. Run the edges of the band across the blade until you've got the thing clean and jointed. Check periodically to keep width under control. You're falling in love with wooden planes at this point.
12. To install stringing on either side...With cutting gauge, cut strings off your whitewood stock. Put band down on wax paper again, brush glue along edge, and press the string against the band. Maintain finger pressure until glue tack takes over. NOTE: Fingers work best.
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Final Note: On a project with banding, the banding ultimately sizes the project. So you have to plan carefully how the band will terminate and turn corners--plan the band and the project size at the same time.