Anyway, my experiences have led me to use a “post mortem” carbon steel #11 scalpel, rather than stainless steel. Carbon steel blades are sharper than stainless steel; although they may not stay sharp as long — sharpening the blades is a snap and can usually be sharpened 5-10 times. Hope this has been useful for you.

Andrew Beard

Jeff’s Answer: Most of the pieces we do are Mahogany so we hit the mahogany with Potassium Dicromate (which basically makes Mahogany or cherry dark and “richens” the natural color of the wood like the sun would). We use holly or boxwood for the inlays because potassium dicromate doesn’t change the color of those inlayed woods. So then we mix this solution, it’s a powder substance that we mix with water. Remember, this doesn’t affect the inlayed color. Then we shellac the whole piece to seal it. Then we apply a glazing stain (it could be a mahogany stain – a Mohawk or Behlin). This glazing stain won’t penetrate the inlays or muddy them up. Then we can add top coats. We use shellac. We might use a lacquer for a final top coat to protect the finish on some table tops. But mostly we use shellac only for topcoats. We use an amber or clear shellac. But usually amber first. We also use brown shellac to control color in some cases. (transcribed via phone)

Great video!

Max

Keith’s Note: Max, let’s put that question out there. I don’t know the answer, but knowing Jeffrey, I’d say he probably uses whatever he can get his hands on.

I’m still not very adept at the curved inlay though. I’d love to see what he does to help keep a very straight and consistent line. Perhaps its the changing wood grain that causes me trouble – I’m not sure…

I think I might make a simple scraper tool like he has for simplifying the inlay creation. I like making my own inlay.

Thanks for the great video!

Fascinating. I can’t wait to try this!
Do one on creating curves too! Bob