Rose Inlay Installation

Chris Rose of historic Smithfield, Virginia commissioned this rose inlay and DePaule Supply in Oregon supplied this beautiful pre-cut inlay.  I had to remove it from the cardboard backing it was on then I reassembled it onto this piece of corian via Cyanoacrylate.  I want this backing left on the piece for a couple of reasons.  The first of which is that it provides rigidity that the assembled (all the pieces glued to each other, and there are a lot of them) inlay lacks without a backing.  This material is cheep and in an abundant supply in my shop, so it was the big winner over the 112 year old maple in the overhead. Oh, the drama!

One of my band saws is set up with a very fine blade for small work and I peel off a thin slice leaving roughly 1/64" to back up the inlay then, getting as close as I can, I cut the backing out around the inlay.

This band sawing technique will only get you so close safely, so switching to a jewelers saw and needle files does a nice clean job finishing off the remaining backing material protruding from around the inlay.

 The cavity is routed in the usual fashion and before I install the inlay I use the random orbital sander to clean off all the white water0-bassed finger-paint before installation. 

I nearly fill the cavity with black superglue (available at Stewart MacDonald) and gently press the inlay into the cavity.  I want it to be only a couple of thousands of an inch above the surface of the headstock so when it is sanded it will not loose a lot of color as gold mother of pearl and abalone can when it is sanded flush.  I give this a whole 24 hours to dry and try to avoid accelerator to give it a chance to dry without as many pin holes.

I hope you have enjoyed this series.