Marquetry

[Ruffnek]

I've been interested in learning marquetry for some time and with no class available within reasonable distance, I decided to try and learn from books, articles and tutorials...pretty much the way I've learned all my woodworking, along with trial and error of course.

When I got home from offshore yesterday, I had a book waiting that I had ordered...The Art of Marquetry by Craig Vandall Stevens, Schiffer Publishing.

I had a look at it this morning and it really looks like a great book for learning the art. The techniques are well illustrated and Stevens does a good job of describing the individual steps. I think I'm going to learn a lot from it.

Now, I just have to decide if I want to use a scroll saw (which I don't have) or a fret saw. Hmmm. Since I'm a dedicated electron burner, it will likely be the scroll saw.

I just wanted to pass on that I think this is a good book for anyone interested in doing marquetry.

[TDHofstetter]

That's sawn marquetry? Please - don't neglect to learn knife-cut marquetry as well! Knife marquetry, although not nearly as fast, can be fitted much more precisely, with nearly invisible seams. The initial outlay is a lot easier on the wallet, too - all ya need is a few good scalpel (NOT X-ACTO) blades, a scalpel blade holder, some blue tape, and a few sacrificial file folders (for masking). Oh, and veneer. And glue. Like that.

It can be done on the dining room table, late into the night, since it's silent...

[Ruffnek]

I've never tried either kind so I'm surely open to suggestions. However, I understand from reading that the double bevel method when sawing yields a very clean edge and a snug, slightly proud fit.

Do you have a reference for knife-cut marquetry instruction?

I'm assuming that is the kind Limey used...am I right? Sure wish the old fart was still arounjd. He's one that I would travel to the Northeast to learn from.

[admin]

Dec 3, 2009 9:29:57 GMT -6 TDHofstetter said:

It can be done on the dining room table, late into the night, since it's silent...

Uh, Tim, might wanna correct yerself there. I know from personal experience that when I last handled a scalpel, I was far from silent, especially when I accidentally cut myself with the blasted thing. It's amazing surgeons can hold 'em at all; they're slippery little buggers! (Can't you just hear the operation room chatter? "The patient is in for a appendectomy" <drops scalpel> "And since I was in the area, I'll do my own too."

Seriously, there's a guy who used to do marquetry here and all he used to get the pieces to shape was a couple knives he'd found in a yard sale and a few pieces of metal with various curves and angles. Guy did an eagle once, thing was so stunning it looked like it was going to take off and fly out of the room. First time I saw a wood creation like that framed and hung on the wall like a picture!

[Leo Voisine]

Dec 3, 2009 9:29:57 GMT -6 TDHofstetter said:

That's sawn marquetry? Please - don't neglect to learn knife-cut marquetry as well! Knife marquetry, although not nearly as fast, can be fitted much more precisely, with nearly invisible seams. The initial outlay is a lot easier on the wallet, too - all ya need is a few good scalpel (NOT X-ACTO) blades, a scalpel blade holder, some blue tape, and a few sacrificial file folders (for masking). Oh, and veneer. And glue. Like that.

It can be done on the dining room table, late into the night, since it's silent...

There are a couple of different types of marquetry. One with thin veneer type wood and one with thicker wood and in varying thicknesses.

Diane and I sat at Limeys table one day with Limey and he showed me the knife method. That would not work on the thicker woods type of marquetry.

Either method in intreguing - but I thing the thicker woods method looks better to me.

I also have a book - but have never tried it. My book demonstrates a scroll saw method.

[wisardd1]

The thicker type is intarsia. Someone has a hummingbird box posted either here or on the other site that is beautiful. There is also segmentation. Here is a link worth having

www.scrollsawer.com/forum/intarsia-and-segmentation/25463.htm

Here is a tutorial
www.woodezine.com/06_2005/0605_marquetry.html

inlay.com/marquetry/wood_inlay_part1.html

www.americanmarquetrysociety.com/newsletters.html

[TDHofstetter]

Dec 3, 2009 10:15:43 GMT -6 Ruffnek said:

I've never tried either kind so I'm surely open to suggestions. However, I understand from reading that the double bevel method when sawing yields a very clean edge and a snug, slightly proud fit.

Do you have a reference for knife-cut marquetry instruction?

I'm assuming that is the kind Limey used...am I right? Sure wish the old fart was still arounjd. He's one that I would travel to the Northeast to learn from.

I second wishing he was still around to help with stuff like this - he even taught my last ex how to use a scalpel blade in a holder to make nearly invisible veneer joints. I think I absorbed most of what he said & showed, but I've never actually laid scalpel to veneer myself so I don't feel very comfortable instructing; I could hand off some broad strokes, though.

He was always quick to point out that an XActo knife blade was much too thick to do a good job, and impossible to make an invisible joint with. Scalpel blades were the ONLY blades he'd use, and not in a standard scalpel handle - there are special handles (although a fella can easily modify an XActo handle) that grip down close to the point to keep it rigid. A flexing blade is - he said - useless.

The pattern to be worked was drawn on a piece of file folder, which was taped over a working substrate (self-healing board or MDF), taped along the top edge so it'd always register when flipped down but could be flipped up out of the way easily.

The first piece to be cut was carefully trimmed out of the folder material and various pieces of veneer moved around under the resulting window until the right effect of grain direction, coloring, chatoyance, and shading was found for that piece. When the right piece was found, cutting could begin.

Cutting was done never in a slicing motion, but always in a stabbing motion - poking straight downward with the tip of the scalpel blade held against the cut edge of the folder's window. It's similar to a stitching motion, making a perforated line around the piece. It might require two or three times all the way around that piece to separate it from the rest of the flitch, but it would finally separate and fit VERY CLOSELY.

That piece was glued or taped (or both) in place, then the next "window" was cut from the folder pattern. Blue masking tape was used to hold the cut pieces to the substrate to maintain registration. The final gluing / pressing closed all but the widest gaps between pieces of veneer, and the end result looked nearly painted because the seams were so unobtrusive.

[sawduster]

Cutting was done never in a slicing motion, but always in a stabbing motion - poking straight downward with the tip of the scalpel blade held against the cut edge of the folder's window. It's similar to a stitching motion, making a perforated line around the piece.

That seems counter intuitive, so I would have never thought to make the cuts that way, but would have used a slicing motion and probably ended up with suckie results.

Closely related to intarsia and marquetry is inlay. I've done several box lids using scroll saw inlay and it is much easier than one would assume. Here is a sample of one I did years ago.



That eagle was one of my favorite patterns, but this box was very nerve racking to do because if was for a wood worker friend who had provided the spalted maple, of which he had a very limited supply (the box is made from the one board he had left) and any little goof would have been a major crisis for me.

[Ruffnek]

[quote author=sawduster board=genwork thread=687 post=6642 time=1259869793
Closely related to intarsia and marquetry is inlay. I've done several box lids using scroll saw inlay and it is much easier than one would assume. Here is a sample of one I did years ago.


[/quote]

I went back to your site to check out those boxes just a few days ago. I remember seeing them right after I joined the other forum and thinking I would never be able to do something like that...and maybe I won't but I'm gonna give it a try.

Inlay like that Eagle is just like marquetry except that you didn't use various woods to "paint" the picture. The technique, however, is virtually the same.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments.

[Stretch]

I think you'll love marquetry and it'll definitely fit with your skill set. I've just done enough marquetry to get myself in trouble but the methods are pretty straight forward. If you hit any roadblocks I can probably you out. I've never done any of it with a scroll saw, but the knife method isn't all that hard. Really if you have any drawing talent you've got the talent to do basic marquetry. Now the stuff I saw when I was in England is a whole different story. I saw marquetry panels that looked like still life paintings. They were doing stuff like using hot sand to add subtle shading to the wood. You couldn't tell it was wood until you got just a few feet from it.

[Joe Lyddon]

Dec 3, 2009 13:49:53 GMT -6 sawduster said:

Cutting was done never in a slicing motion, but always in a stabbing motion - poking straight downward with the tip of the scalpel blade held against the cut edge of the folder's window. It's similar to a stitching motion, making a perforated line around the piece.

That seems counter intuitive, so I would have never thought to make the cuts that way, but would have used a slicing motion and probably ended up with suckie results.

Closely related to intarsia and marquetry is inlay. I've done several box lids using scroll saw inlay and it is much easier than one would assume. Here is a sample of one I did years ago.



That eagle was one of my favorite patterns, but this box was very nerve racking to do because if was for a wood worker friend who had provided the spalted maple, of which he had a very limited supply (the box is made from the one board he had left) and any little goof would have been a major crisis for me.

WOW!

I don't think my eyes could handle that small stuff...

You did a fantastic job on it!

[sawduster]

My eyes couldn't handle stuff that small, either. That's why I have a large fluorescent magnifying lamp I use for that kinda stuff. ;D