Daryl Rosenblatt

Like most inlay techniques, it’s easy once you know the “secret,” which really isn’t all that tough. The most difficult part: Drilling the hole to the exact depth. For that you need some spare dots, some practice wood, a sharp brad point bit and a drill press. It’s almost impossible to do it with a hand drill, because you are drilling to maybe 1/16″ or less, and nobody does just one dot. You want them flush to start with (since you’ve already polished them). The brad point bit also gives you a pilot hole where the excess glue can go.

I think you can use Titebond II (not III or original) if you wipe down the dots and hole with acetone. Which is way too much trouble, so I went with Duco, which has held up for years. However, once the dot is in, let it cure overnight, because it can still pop out, and that dot will also obey Murphy’s Law.

I realize I should have said why to pre finish them. The dots, more than regular sheets, don’t have the size to display the sheen and 3D qualities you want, and you don’t want to micro mesh a regular wood surface. Also, sand a few extras, because some can pop off the tape and Murphy’s Law states (and I can prove) the dots will travel to the one spot on the floor both farthest away from you and onto an spot the exact same color.

I’ve frequently used mother of pearl dots, and you need to pre-polish them. That I do is stick them on the back of double sided tape, and then sand them, starting with 320 grit, and working my way up to about to the uber fine grits of micro mesh. I then glue them into the holes of the surfaces that are already totally planed, sanded and ready for finish. A drop of glue, tweezers to handle them and it works great. THere is no way they can be jointed, not a chance. It’s a very brittle material, and don’t use any power tools or edged tools on them at all.

I have oiled over them, but they don’t really need a finish. There is no perfect adhesive for it. Epoxy works well, but your project is already sanded. CA can work, especially if your hole is the right depth, because you don’t want any to work it’s way to the surface. But the CA won’t have the same shear strength as epoxy. A drop of DUCO cement works well also. A very small drop into the hole.

I’ve heard hand tool junkies and sharpening mavens complain the WorkSharp doesn’t sharpen as well as oil or water stones do. They might be right, but it doesn’t matter. Because up to a point, sharp enough is all we have to aim for. My Japanese plane blades have to be sharpened by hand because the blades are tapered. But if I could I would use my WorkSharp. I’ll use any method that’s faster.

And Bill, since you brought up shoulder planes, how about we bring ours in and compare how well they feel or work? I always say there is nothing more fun than whipping out a good tool.

I have an old Clifton shoulder plane, and I have the original little Lie Nielsen shoulder plane back when it was a kit. When you need them they are great. Old time English woodworkers would tell you to build it right without them, so you don’t need them. I also think they had them and just snuck them out and used them when nobody was looking. They don’t make big cuts, so I think paying more for fancy steel is a waste of money.

I have one of those cryogenically treated blades. I figured great, I would almost never have to sharpen it. And it’s true, I haven’t had to in several years. Of course, it took forever to sharpen in the first place. NWeeks actually. That cured me of wanting super duper high end blades like that. I don’t mean don’t get great steel, I love my Hock blades, but sharpening isn’t so difficult you need to avoid it. So I would go with the cheaper of the 3 price options. Lee Valley tools and steel is great in all their levels.

Charlie, why wonder when you can try it. Bring it to the Round Robin. Get out a nice board, a piece of curly cherry will do. Then get out your hair clippers and the members can see how well it works. Then Joe can try his toothed blade, and we will see if there are any differences.

And fair is fair. Let’s try them both on your hair as well.

I agree that an entire toothing PLANE is not really needed. Much too specialized and expensive. However, a toothing BLADE, now that can be useful. It’s among the few blades that can really do work on curly maple and bubinga. On the other hand, someone asked me at one of the shows (probably the one where I had the curly bubinga tables) how I planed them, and I answered, “With sandpaper.”

I really do like the idea of the toothed blade for prepping ornery woods, in that you can’t use sandpaper until you are done with edged tools. And it’s really pleasant to do as much work by hand as possible (says the guy with the 12 inch jointer!!!). If the need arises, I would get the toothed blade for my low angle jack plane.

I’m a much bigger fan of inlay by hand than by power. It’s a much more controlled cut. But if it’s an irregular shape, I would make a template for a Dremel. However, from a design perspective, most irregular curves that look “right” are almost always compound curves from regular arcs. When I made my bed headboard, to get the camelback top, I used a compass with over a 7 foot radius connected to my router. It’s a series of several really large arcs. And with an arc, an inlay cut is easy to control by hand, except in woods like curly maple. Then the grain runs in so many places and ways, a rotary cut with a bit is better, just take 1/64″ cuts. Yes, that shallow. 4 passes and you have a perfect cut. Also, if possible, always cut “downhill” on a curve.

Any other ways?

The Latta bits hold up for a long time. They were also about 1/3 the price when I bought a bunch of them about 10 years ago. Steve made a point of saying that you don’t take all the wood out, even for inlay, in one pass. I usually use them in 3 passes or even 4 if the wood is dense.

I’ve seen all sorts of demos on inlay (I tend to like doing them by hand), but the best powered one was by Steve Latta (who has forgotten more about inlay than I will ever know). He uses a Dremel with one of his milling bits (I bought a ton of them, good for when I do use power). Here is the link:

http://www.drilltechnology.com/sapfm.html

Interesting since he’s the one who designed the Lie Nielsen inlay tools, so it’s OK to do either. When he uses his Dremel. he made a template that was 1/8″ smaller, and used the bit as an edge guide as he ran the cutter. I don’t know if they are upcut, downcut, side cut, or light saber cut, but they do a good job. Based on what he said, when it’s straight lines or arcs, he will do them by hand, but when compound curves, the Dremel comes out.