Chevrons and Diamonds

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mark james

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mark james

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Mark:

Looking good as always, I like the blue in the pattern. Good , No!!!! great work my friend.

Charlie

Hi Charlie. The thicker veneers are an easy modification when assembling the initial brick. Many of my more recent ideas for design modifications are based on assembling the brick differently; all else is the same. For this, I used leftover slices, split them at a similar joint, reversed two, added the square/diamond section.

Very very nice!

Thank You!


Also, Thank You. Your brick is done... 6 1/2" long chevrons; alas no diamonds for this trial.


Thank you Bruce. After much pondering, exploring and a bit of turning over the past 18 months, I finally got the diamond pattern down. I appreciate your interest last summer to do the diamonds "Your way," as it gave me an appreciation for how to do things with a different viewpoint/tools. Watching you was an enjoyable afternoon. (And I still cherish the pen/pencil).

 

Ed McDonnell

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Looks great Mark.

I wonder if there would be a way to do a book match on the chevron grain on pieces that small? I was looking at the red Chevron towards the top with the darker grain on the right half when I was thinking that. It seems like it would be doable, but may not be worth the extra complexity in your process. What might look cool when zoomed in peeping at pixels on the internet might be invisible to the naked eye (mine for sure) when holding the pen.

Anyway, great job. It is very impressive how much progress you've made in such a short time with these. I can't wait to see what's next.

Ed
 

mark james

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Looks great Mark.

I wonder if there would be a way to do a book match on the chevron grain on pieces that small? I was looking at the red Chevron towards the top with the darker grain on the right half when I was thinking that. It seems like it would be doable, but may not be worth the extra complexity in your process. What might look cool when zoomed in peeping at pixels on the internet might be invisible to the naked eye (mine for sure) when holding the pen.

Anyway, great job. It is very impressive how much progress you've made in such a short time with these. I can't wait to see what's next.

Ed

G'Day Ed,

If you follow the way I construct these (I suspect you do), I make a
"Block/brick" and then cut the slices and reverse them in pairs. So yes, it should be easy to have book-matched grains, at the outer diameter. I have made strides to insure that the SIDE grain is what appears on the side of the "Chevrons." (Experience has taught that lesson!)

For me, the challenge is that after turning down to 1-2 mm (-/+) the grains are not as matched as when I did a 6 mm inlay and they looked nice at the outer diameter. But, I understand your thought. I'll ponder it. But truly, thanks for the comments, this is fun!

What's next? More diamonds! 4, 5 and 6 inlays per blank. More colors. Varied Chevron sizes. Different angle cuts. Get others to do these (poke, poke) and play! This is all for fun.

Cheers, Mark
 
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Amazing work as always Mark. Truthfully I like this design more than with all the chevrons in the same direction, which is saying a lot. I was wondering how it would look but not having the skill to do it myself, I chose to wait until you came up with one :wink: You didn't disappoint!
 

SteveJ

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Well done again. Did you just put the diamond at the bottom of the chevron and then put two chevrons together? When I did mine I wanted the "diamond" not to just be square, so it was actually four pieces glued to make the diamond shape.

It actually looks like your chevrons before adding the diamond would have about the same length as the final product. I'm just having a hard time "seeing" how you managed four of the sticks!

When I see the results you get with the colored veneer it makes me realize that I really need to get some of it! The color really adds to the effect.
 

Ed McDonnell

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Hey Mark - I've got an idea for trying a different approach to creating single piece chevrons rather than two piece chevrons from glue ups. You wouldn't get book matching, but the grain would carry straight thru the entire chevron. That has worked well for me in small piece inlays on other things.
I haven't tried it on pens, but it should be (relatively) easy to do with the equipment I've got, but it should also be doable with a router and some v-bits (machine male / female from different woods). I'm putting it on my list of things to try.

Ed


G'Day Ed,

If you follow the way I construct these (I suspect you do), I make a
"Block/brick" and then cut the slices and reverse them in pairs. So yes, it should be easy to have book-matched grains, at the outer diameter. I have made strides to insure that the SIDE grain is what appears on the side of the "Chevrons." (Experience has taught that lesson!)

For me, the challenge is that after turning down to 1-2 mm (-/+) the grains are not as matched as when I did a 6 mm inlay and they looked nice at the outer diameter. But, I understand your thought. I'll ponder it. But truly, thanks for the comments, this is fun!

What's next? More diamonds! 4, 5 and 6 inlays per blank. More colors. Varied Chevron sizes. Different angle cuts. Get others to do these (poke, poke) and play! This is all for fun.

Cheers, Mark
 

leehljp

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Well done. I love the white surrounding the blue. The white really makes the other colors stand out.

What thickness did you use for the whites?
 

mark james

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Well done. I love the white surrounding the blue. The white really makes the other colors stand out.

What thickness did you use for the whites?

Hi Hank. Both the blue and white were about .9mm (1/28"). This where I bought them: B and B Rare Woods

The small mixed packs are nice to try out some colors, but If you are making the chervon bricks like I do, and then put veneers on the sides of the inlays (or other segmenting applications), you may want to get two of the packs so you don't run out of a color before you are done. I usually buy full sheets as there is less waster as I can cut as much as I need.

The veneers are nice to work with, can be cut with a sharp scissors, and the colors are completely dyed through the wood (pressure dyed I believe).

If they are out of stock for a certain color, it can be weeks before they get more from Europe.
 

mark james

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Well done again. Did you just put the diamond at the bottom of the chevron and then put two chevrons together? When I did mine I wanted the "diamond" not to just be square, so it was actually four pieces glued to make the diamond shape.

It actually looks like your chevrons before adding the diamond would have about the same length as the final product. I'm just having a hard time "seeing" how you managed four of the sticks!

When I see the results you get with the colored veneer it makes me realize that I really need to get some of it! The color really adds to the effect.

Hi Steve, yes, mine was simply square, so I have used two ways.

1. Simply use the end of the chevrons that have the resulting 90 degree angle straight from the brick.
2. For this pen, I snapped 2 1/2" chevrons (before assembly, they were still 1/2 chevrons), and completed the chevrons.

For a non-square shape, your method is better I suspect.

In this picture, the assembly is the same as I used for the pen. Here I was trying to make a very long blank but the alignment was poor so the long pieces are rejects.
 

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mark james

IAP Collection, Curator
Joined
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Messages
12,720
Location
Medina, Ohio
Hey Mark - I've got an idea for trying a different approach to creating single piece chevrons rather than two piece chevrons from glue ups. You wouldn't get book matching, but the grain would carry straight thru the entire chevron. That has worked well for me in small piece inlays on other things.
I haven't tried it on pens, but it should be (relatively) easy to do with the equipment I've got, but it should also be doable with a router and some v-bits (machine male / female from different woods). I'm putting it on my list of things to try.

Ed

That sounds fun, Ed. I'd love to see that!
 

SteveJ

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Jul 11, 2012
Messages
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Location
Grand Junction, Colorado
Well done again. Did you just put the diamond at the bottom of the chevron and then put two chevrons together? When I did mine I wanted the "diamond" not to just be square, so it was actually four pieces glued to make the diamond shape.

It actually looks like your chevrons before adding the diamond would have about the same length as the final product. I'm just having a hard time "seeing" how you managed four of the sticks!

When I see the results you get with the colored veneer it makes me realize that I really need to get some of it! The color really adds to the effect.

Hi Steve, yes, mine was simply square, so I have used two ways.

1. Simply use the end of the chevrons that have the resulting 90 degree angle straight from the brick.
2. For this pen, I snapped 2 1/2" chevrons (before assembly, they were still 1/2 chevrons), and completed the chevrons.

For a non-square shape, your method is better I suspect.

In this picture, the assembly is the same as I used for the pen. Here I was trying to make a very long blank but the alignment was poor so the long pieces are rejects.

The problem with the method I used is that the width of the chevron strip is considerably wider than what you are able to achieve. I may attempt to do a thinner strip but the diamond pieces will end up being pretty small.
 
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