Wow, First try at an inlay

[Neillarson]

Today I made my first try at an inlay Celtic Know. Halfway through making the roughs I was convinced that I was in WAY over my head.

I made 3 blanks, a Blood wood with Maple inlay, a Purpleheart with Maple inlay and a walnut with Purpleheart and Maple inlay. I had real problems with the purplehart so I set it aside. The other 2 came out but they were butt ugly.

I turned the blood wood and it looks fantastic. Now I have figured out a few different ways to do things better, wax paper to line a clamp jig, a one sided miter sled for making inlay slices and maybe using the BS instead of the TS to do a lot oof the cutting.

The only problems I had was in putting the pen together. Woodcraft instructions absolutly suck. And that is being nice. So, even though the wood lloks great, the assembly didn't work.

 

[thewishman]

Sounds like a learning experience. Which kit were you making?

Chris

 

[GaryMGg]

Neil,

Technically, it's not an inlay; it's a segmentation. An inlay doesn't go all the way through the blank. If you were trying to do inlay Celtic Knots, then my hat's off to you! [}] [][]

This forum is the place to post those problematic pics if you want help on technique or what-have-you. Perhaps showing pics of your set-up would allow us to offer suggestions and advice. I've been doing flatwork many years now, and I'm probably better at that than turning.

Gary

 

[Rmartin]

Where's the picture man!

 

[Neillarson]

Ok, I will post a pic of the turning tomorrow, it actually looks great (IMHO), it really is a problem with poor instructions, poor reading skills or just a Oh **** moment. But the pen is un-usable as I can not assemble it. I will try to salvage the turning and use a new kit.

I have a few different kits from CSUSA, Penn and Beara (SP?) and they all have GREAT instructions. I have another 6 or so different kits from Woodcraft and they just are not very good. This one is the worst. I believe that the pen kit is 123106 (American Classic Pen in Ball Point)and they told me to use the instructions for 123108