Project Description:
This Guild project, which was kindly offered to non-members, looked like a great way for me to try using primarily hand tools. The table provided an opportunity to do my first real hand-cut dovetails and inlays. All joinery was hand-cut. I also took inspiration from Steve Latta and Garret Hack for the inlay embellishments. Instead of plywood, I used a traditional raised panel pine panel for the drawer bottom, allowing room for cross grain expansion. The curly maple was a bear to plane and I had to fight with the tear-out (a high-angle plane is next on my wish list), but the beautiful figure was worth the effort. Many thanks to Marc and the Wood Talk Online Forum for their generous support for this and all the other resources.

Website: Lumberjocks Page

Location: Broken Arrow, OK

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Experience: 0-2 yrs

Project Name: Corner Table with Inlay

Wood Species: Poplar, Maple

Finish Used: Sanded to 220 (for blotch). End grain was burnished to help slow absorption. 1/8″ masking tape to protect the inlay. This has to be perfect, and where the tape meets in the corners has to be flat on the inlay right up to the perpendicular tape to prevent stain from being worked under the tape should it “slope” up to the adjoining tape.

1/2 lb. cut Sealcoat – 2 coats
1 coat GF Georgian Cherry gel stain
1 coat GF 1:1 Georgian Cherry / Java
2 coats Arm-R-Seal wiped on, undiluted

White abrasive pads were used to remove excessive hard lines where stain had built up along side the tape causing the oil to accentuate the flaw, as well as any dust or other in-between coat needs 2 coats 1:1 diluted Arm-R-Seal wiped on

Project Description:
David Marks inspired the design and process, Norm inspired the finish, but that had to be modified. Norm also inspired the “nested” idea. But that came later after botching a beveled edge and having to trim the original table top back beyond the inlay. Having wanted to build the Nest of Tables, this became an opportunity to do that.

The layout followed David Marks. Using the top as a template, I did a full layout of the base. Placement of legs (which are rotated 45 to front of table, square to the walls), reveal of the aprons, etc. These layout marks were later used to mark cut lines on the aprons. Simply lay the apron stock on the template, mark where it meets the legs, cut. No measuring, no worries about exact angles. If the angles are drawn right on the template, the layout can be transferred easily and accurately.

Joinery was mortise and tenon, except for the front apron, which was loose tenons, as I didn’t think I could cut the 45 degree tenons at my skill level.

Assem-buh-ly was done with a band clamp to pull the 45′s together, bar clamps to pull the 90′s together. Care – and 2-3 dry fits – must be taken to be certain the bar clamps are square or they pull the 45′s out.

The nested corner tables fit nicely in the entry hall allowing for the front door to open without hitting them.

Website: My Facebook Page

Location: CT

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Finish Used: For my finish I used 7 coats of waterlox. I removed the extra oil 5 to 10 minutes after I applied it. After 24 hours I used a gray scotch pad and cleaned in between coats. To me it was the longest part of the project.

Wood Species: The bench is Red Oak. The inlay is Mahogany and White Maple (dyed black)

Project Description:
My inspiration? Spagnuolo of course! His videos are very educational, made me believe I could do it. The design was in my head and as I went through the project, I made changes to make it a true one of a kind. I spent approximately 100 hrs (give or take a few hours) in my single car garage shop. I spent about $150 on lumber, sand paper, waterlox and all those other little things. However, I spent $300 on new tools so I could do the project, all of which I’ll use again.

Here’s a little slideshow Dan made:

Website: www.philcrane.com

Location: Sacramento, CA

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: The finish is a standard wipe on poly – 4 coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal

Wood Species: Mahogany

Project Description:
I was looking for something to create for my niece on her 18th birthday and I came across a picture of a jewelry box which looked unique so I took the design and added my own touches. Having just completed a class on Shell Inlay I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to practice my new found skills!
The joinery is all mortise and tenon except for the drawer fronts which have dadoes cut in them to accept the sides. The drawers are all lined with flocking.
The drawer fronts are inlayed with Japanese flowers cut from Mother of Pearl, Green Abalone, Pink Mussel and Black Lip and the top of the box is inlayed with a large Japanese Crane. I didn’t keep track of how many hours it took to make this box but it covered a number of months with the usual mad rush to get it finished on time!

You can download the SketchUp File here.

From: Jack G

Location: San Dimas, CA

Amateur or Pro: Amateur

Finish Used: 3 coats Spray Laquer (semi gloss)

Wood Species: Cherry / Walnut w/ Wenge and Birdseye Maple Inlay

Project Description:
This is a jewelry box for my daughter, Melissa (nickname: Turtle), hence the turtle inlay in the top. She just turned 6 and is starting to accumulate some jewelry. Simple buscuit joinery with my first attempt at router based inlay after watching Marc’s video. Designed the turtle inlay to include the “M” for Melissa.

Would have liked to use Wenge instead of Walnut for the legs and handle but my hardwood supplier was out. I think she will be happy with it and hopefully will get years of use.

Inlay is a great way to adorn your woodworking projects. Even the simplest item can become incredibly compelling if it features a well-executed inlay. With the right materials and techniques, its just like painting with wood. Only “non-artistic” folks like myself can actually do it!

If you are in the N. California are, be sure to take one of David Marks’ marquetry and inlay classes. And below are a few items that I recommend using for this process:

I would love it if you could show a few of my recently made boxes. I am quite proud of them and I would like to see what some real woodworkers think about them. Either way negative or positive responses are always appreciated. The first box is Oak with dovetails. I used Dark Walnut Danish Oil and I left it without a top coat. The second box is Oak as well with miters and splines. I used Medium Walnut Danish Oil and top coated it wish paste wax. The third box is Maple with a 9/16 box joint. This one also has the Medium Walnut and a wipe on poly.

And here are some unique inlayed boxes submitted by Larry. I love the way the handle was incorporated into the design. Check them out:

I just wanted to show you the end result of the gift boxes I had made. I had asked you a few questions regarding their constructing/finishing, to which I thank you for your insight. I basically built them from a guide in Woodsmith magazine. I used my own ideas on materials though. I made the inlay first. I used black walnut and maple glued up to form a “blank” that I cut the inlay strips from. The cool part is, I got the black walnut from a pallet about 2 years ago. I had never seen black walnut used on a pallet before and have not seen it since either. The maple came from some old warped flooring that was being discarded from the school system I work for. The basic box is made from cherry as that has always been a favorite of mine. The top and bottom is plywood. I’m pretty sure it was a birch veneered plywood but I’ve had it laying around so long I don’t remember. I used the plywood because I wanted to be able to glue the tops and bottoms securely as I flocked the inside. By the way I also followed your advice by making up a “mock” box to practice flocking. It was one of the easiest things I ever did. All you have to do is follow the instructions they give you and the results are excellent. After the inlay was done I used the remaining inlay stock to make the handles.
Thanks again for your website and taking the time to do what you do. It is greatly appreciated!!!

I thought you might be interested in my latest project. It’s another “router bowl”, created using a collet extension on my Hitachi plunge router. I used a Whiteside bowl/dish bit to hog out all of the material from the small slab of Sapele. The tray measures 20″x12″x2″. I got really lucky with the size, because I neglected to measure the diameter of our dinner plates before I started the milling process. Our plates fit in the bottom, with about 1/4″ to spare.

The Sapele is quarter-sawn, which is what produces the ribboning effect. I love the way the grain pops with some oil. The pictures of course don’t do justice to the shimmering effect in the wood. I inlaid two thin strips of curly maple along the outside length of both sides. I feel like the contrast really adds to the overall beauty of the Sapele. Thanks for taking a look!

I can’t believe it – the shoe cabinet is done! :) It’s been a long process. With me being such a newbie, and having just a bit of free time to devote each week, it’s taken me something like 6 months to complete! This was a real learning project. Many firsts for me: loose mortise and tenons, edge joining wider boards, flush drawers with half-blind and through dovetails, routed inlays, sliding doors, staining poplar, etc. I based the design on David Marks’ tool cabinet (Woodworks #503), but much larger and with drawers on top. I used poplar throughout, and walnut for the inlays and handles. Finished with a 2lb cut of shellac followed by General Finishes American oak gel stain and 3 coats of Arm-r-Seal.

One of the big lessons from this project is covering up mistakes, of which there were MANY! :) The biggest oops came when I was routing the mortises in the top — the router bit somehow slipped loose and punched right through the top. Not a happy woodworking moment!! After wrangling with ideas about patching the holes, making a new top, etc, I took your excellent suggestion of filling the hole with epoxy, and then routing a complete perimeter inlay over the top of it. Hey, I meant to do that! :) It turned out great!

I also really struggled with the doors. Not having a band saw, and unable to find any good 1/4″ plywood locally, my “beautifully figured” sliding doors are actually just 1/4″ MDF panels. I used the same gel stain and sorta dragged the rag across to produce a fakey wood grain :) For the dovetails, I started with an old rockler jig – and just like you, I ended up wanting to drive a truck over it. I ended up investing in the Leigh Super 18 – nice! After spending so long fine-tuning the half-blind fronts, I was stunned how easy the through dovetails were in comparison! :) Took a crazy amount of time, but I just love those dovetails.

Thanks again for all your help Marc. You’ve patiently answered every one of my emails and given me numerous suggestions which you can see reflected right in the completed project. And I can’t count how many times I’ve come back to your videos for advice, design ideas, the dovetails, edge-joining with biscuits, mortise and tenons, pairing, wiping finishes, etc, etc – even how best to measure and mark when putting the door handles on. Looking forward to the next project.

The project is an ottoman tray. It will be a simple piece of 3/4 maple ply with a substantial solid padauk border. The inlay, is a simple interpretation of the sun. So here we go. It all starts with your design. Draw it out exactly how you want it to appear. It helps to have center-line and reference marks as they will make your life easier when it comes time to keep things aligned. Next, position your drawing over the substrate and tape one side in position. Now you can slide in a piece of carbon paper. Simply trace your design thereby transferring it to the substrate. For this design, the reference marks aren’t all that critical since I only need to transfer my design to the substrate once. But if you are doing a more complex design like one of my leaves, you will be re-tracing the design several times. Reference marks are then imperative.

If you haven’t already done so, you want to prepare your inlay stock at this point. I milled up few pieces of padauk for the large spikes and canarywood for the small spikes and the body of the sun. I like to aim for 1/16″-1/8″ thickness for my stock. My drum sander belt is broken so these are a bit larger than I was shooting for. Since I have repeated geometric shapes, my next step was to make a template for each piece out of 1/4″ ply. I simply used the carbon paper to trace the design onto the ply and cut it at the bandsaw.
Then I finessed the edges with sandpaper. If I were doing a leaf design, I would just trace my design directly to my inlay material and cut it out at the bandsaw or scroll saw. So now I use my templates to make my actual inlay pieces. I double-stick taped the template to my inlay stock, rough cut them on the bandsaw, then flush-trimmed them at the router table. These pieces are awefully small to rout, but with the proper precautions, it is possible. Any spots that send up the caution flags were touched up using sandpaper. Then I quickly cut the cararywood into a half circle using a quick rig at the bandsaw.

Now comes the fun part. This part of the process is exactly the same whether you are doing straight lines, geometric shapes, or complex designs. Start by double stick taping the piece to be inlayed into the substrate. Notice that the spikes are being done before the circle. This is because I want to circle to overlap the spikes. If I did it the other way, the continuity of the circle would be ruined. This concept is very important when creating the illusion of depth. The next few steps require a steady hand and patience. Lay off the coffee for a few hours. Or if you like a challenge, drink three cups before you start like I did. With an X-acto knife, carefully trace the outline of the inlay piece. Don’t rush this part. Start with a light touch just severing the top fibers. After a few passes you can increase the pressure and you will have a nice sharp outline.

Once the entire piece is outlined, carefully remove it with a putty knife. Now we need to make that outline a bit more visible. Simply grab your pencil and trace around the outline. Its OK to be sloppy. Then erase the line using strokes perpendicular to the outline. This will make sure the pencil residue gets loaded into the cut while cleaning the rest of the marks.

Now its time to do the routing. I generally use two bits. I hog out the material with a decent sized straight bit. Then I sneak up on the line with a 1/16″ bit. Yes, its THAT small!!! Set the router to cut just a bit shy of the thickness of the inlay material, strap on your helmet, and pray for mercy. A critical tool in this process is the hands-free magnifier. With good lighting, they are worth their weight in gold. Which is probably about $20. Coincidentally that is how much they cost.

Now unfortunately, no picture can do this part justice. With the 1/16″ bit, you really need to be careful when sneaking up to your line. I usually lock the router in the on position and put both hands on the base of the router. This gives me exceptional control. If you aren’t comfortable with this type of maneuver, then don’t do it. But I can’t think of any other way to get the control I need. A key point here is to watch the tearout of the router bit as you approach your line. The cool part is that as you sneak up to the line the little tearouts are clearly evident. But as soon as you kiss the line, the tearouts fly out leaving a nice clean line. That’s how you know you are there. Pre-cutting with the X-acto knife is what makes this possible.

Once the routing is complete, its time to test the fit. The piece will rarely drop right in. Usually the recess needs a bit of work. I use the X-acto knife and a chisel to hit the corner and clean up my edges. As a final touch, I sand a slight chamfer into the inlay piece. This ensures a nice tight wedged fit. Once all the pieces fit nicely, I glue them in place and clamp them down with some sort of caul. In this case, a piece of scrap ply does a fine job.

At this point, I took a lunch break. Turkey, swiss, on wheat. Light mayo. Yogurt (mixed berry). Back to the shop. Now we need to flush everything up. You can use a variety of tools for this. I like to use a block plane to remove the bulk, then I switch to a card scraper or a cabinet scraper. I finish up with a quick sanding. This is also a perfect time to hide any flaws or oopsies. Cyanoacrylate (CA) glue and a little dust from the offending inlay can give nearly undetectable repairs. A quick sanding at 150 and we are ready to add the circle part of the sun. The circle pretty much goes in like the other pieces. After hitting the circle with block plane and smoothing plane, I sanded the whole piece to 220.

As you can see, it is important to plan out the order in which you will apply the inlays. As mentioned before, I wanted to circle of the sun to be the “top-most” part of the image, so it goes on last. With my leaves, I will do one half of a leaf at a time. The leaf that is in the background is done first. The overlapping leaf is then done on top of the first leaf, giving the impression of depth.

And here is the final product with the sculpted padauk frame and several coats of lacquer.