The gratuitous inlay I added to the spline jig, wet my appetite for learning more. I am going to make two identical tiny boxes. I started by designing the layout on graph paper. The next step was to cut three 12 inch piece of hard maple. I used my Japanese hand saws for this, mostly because I wanted to. They were happy to help.
I am not sure where the inspiration came from, but I really took great pains to plan it out. My modus operandi has been to wing it. The first little hurdle was when I needed to route out the first groove. I needed a way to route lines, which are not parallel to the edge. As you know, route table fences are really good at parallel, but don’t excel in 12.5 degrees cuts.
I needed a wedge to set the board off the fence at the proper angle. It wasn’t too difficult to draw the proper angle on a piece of scrap. I was sure that Jeff would be able to make quick work of the cut. Then I stood in front of Jeff. D’oh, another fence which likes parallel lines. If I only had a wedge, it would make cutting this wedge really easy.
The solution was to free hand the cut. The line was straight…well straighish. The Stanley 4 1/2 was brought into the game and he quickly flattened the slight bumps and hills on the edge. It was very satisfying. I am starting to really appreciate having hand planes around. This was not the only time the 4 1/2 would jump into play today.
The reason I had 3 piece of wood, and not two, was because I anticipated needing a practice piece. I was absolutely correct. The first pass, with a 1/4 inch Freud bit, didn’t really give me a perfectly straight cut. The problem was that I didn’t keep the piece of wood from sliding up the wedge. The wedge and wood need to move as one. This is very important!
I made a push stick from another piece of scrap, which made a world of difference. The next two cuts, on the other pieces went off without a hitch. The 1/4 inch grooves were ready for a strip of padauk. I have a block of padauk and Jeff was happy to shave off a sheet, from which I would be able to cut my inlay strips. The strips were ‘proud’ by about an 1/8 of an inch. I did this intentionally.
Once the glue had dried, I went back to the hand plane and shaved them down to the surface of the boards. It is really satisfying to combine two pieces of wood into one, and to run one’s hand over it and feel the smooth transition between the differing species. It looks cool too!
Next I cut the 1/8 inch grooves, after making two more wedges. One needs a different wedge for each unique angle. Because I had already completed one strip of the inlays, when I routed across it, it left a nice groove for the new inlay strip. What I hadn’t thought to do, was to do one of the 1/8 grooves first, install the strip, and then route the next groove.
I got lucky because the point at where they cross, is in a waste area which will be routed out tomorrow. This meant I didn’t need to make the pieces match up precisely. After I did the first board though, I decided to try to be precise anyway, just to see if I could. The top board in the picture shows was the second one, and It looks pretty good.
The strips were glued in, and then planed flat. The only thing left to do was to take a photo. These are not the last inlays for these boxes. Tomorrow I will work on the rest of my design.






















