GET INLAID

Watching my inlay video last week, Larry Robinson suggested acetone for removing paper from shell, so it was at the top of my shopping list Saturday morning. Before I started sawing, I found a little plastic container I wouldn’t mind ruining, dumped all my scraps into it, and drowned them in acetone, and stuck the works outside because acetone gives off nasty fumes. Whenever I’d get up for a break, I’d stir the pieces in the acetone with a metal file, and I was gratified to see the paper releasing from the shell. Fabulous! It works!

At some point in the afternoon, the wind must’ve picked up and the temperature must have been just right, because the next time I went out, I no longer had a container full of liquid acetone. I had this:

The acetone had evaporated, covering all the shell with what looked like plastic laminate. It came out of the container in a chunk. Yuck! But I have to admit, my inner child was delighted by this wicked and unexpected mess. How cool is this?

The backside was even better as the semi-dissolved superglue had formed into mozzarella-like strands.

So I poured more acetone into the container, stirred it up again, and went back to sawing. After I’d broken the last 4 pieces of shell I’d attempted to saw, and decided that I should take it as a sign that I was done for the day, I went out to work on my shell bits.

A lot of the paper had come loose, but it didn’t float to the top as I might’ve hoped, probably because I had so many pieces in there. It still took a little bit of work as I used my file and my rubber-gloved fingers to remove the paper, and then plucked the pieces out to dry, and despite being outside, the acetone left me with a headache working it for so long. I’m not sure how often I’m going to engage in this process. But I found a lot of usable shell bits in my scrap pile.

They’re still “drying” out on the step outside. I wonder how many of them still had enough superglue residue that they’ll be a part of that cement forever.

Saturday was more sawing of all kinds, though mostly shell. I attempted to make myself a sanding block, but my craptastic wannabe saw wasn’t up to the task. However, it will soon be replaced by the real deal, and I can make all the sanding blocks I want. Of course, that will probably equal exactly one, but it’s the principle of the thing!

After spending way too much time on my knees on the cement looking for dropped pieces the previous week, I decided to get smart and do something proactive to avoid losing them in the first place. When I went to Ace to pick up acetone Saturday morning, I picked up a shop apron, too, since it caught my eye and I’ve been using my one kitchen apron out there. Turns out that apron is nice and long, so I rigged up this fancy SSPRS (that would be Small Shell Piece Retention System. I’m thinking of patenting it.)

This project I decided to have a zero-tolerance policy for crappy sawing. If it was bad and couldn’t be filed into submission, or I just broke it while sawing, I made a new one. I ended up having to do several pieces over because of this policy, but I figured it would serve me well in the long run. Here are 4 that had to be redone for various reasons.

I realized that I caused myself a wee bit of trouble, and a good amount of extra sanding, by putting some of the pieces on the green abalone when their size and/or curvature precluded putting them on the thin paua blanks. The green abalone is noticeably thicker than both the paua and the abalam, which are .040”. I think the green is .050”. Ah well. I also noticed that I prefer cutting the green. As beautiful as the paua is, it’s riddled with wormholes and tends to brittleness. This causes a lot of sawing hang-ups. The green abalone has a creamier consistency. MOP is the most homogenous of the bunch. I’m starting to learn my material, it seems. Yay!

My zero-tolerance policy lasted through all but one piece, #53/55 in the bottom right of the leaves. Because of the thin part in the middle of the 2 chunks, it broke twice. And I dutifully resawed it twice, because it’s the principle of the thing. But when the third one broke, too, I decided to fudge the 2 pieces the best I could. We’ll see later if it’s a disaster.

I glued all the pieces together into one plate, as I learned from watching my video, working from the top down, and from the inside out. I found some pieces fit perfectly and others needed filing. A couple I recut entirely because the gap was so bad. But I found that doing it in this sequence allowed me to adjust each piece as I placed it, making for a better whole. Even if it was slightly off the original drawing, it was cohesive unto itself. I think it looks pretty good, although it is by no means perfect. However, I think it shows real growth, and that’s all that matters right now.

Once the glue dried, I stuck it onto the alder piece with some Duco where it waits for scribing. Between the scribing and routing to be done, I’m hoping my new saw will be here in time to make my sanding block and use it on this project.

So Friday night I sat down and watched the first of the 3-video Inlay Techniques with Larry Robinson set.  He’s the guy who wrote one of my books and with whom I e-mailed a little bit.  It was well worth watching, and I took quite a few notes, but I don’t think I need to own the set.  I will, however, be renting the other 2.

The video was 2.5 hours long, and very useful on several fronts.  Probably first and foremost, it showed me that I do in fact have the techniques down.  I’m doing just what he’s doing.  I’m just not doing it with 25 years’ experience.  I found that very encouraging, though—I’ve got the basics, now it’s just a matter of practice.  I wasn’t doing anything horribly wrong.

Except using the wrong saw.  The saw I bought from Stew-Mac was this one.  And I have found that I have a really hard time getting the blade taut enough.  And a sloppy blade is hard to control, because it’s always bending.  So that might be part of my sawing accuracy issues.  He had said in his book, and repeated in the video, that it should "ping" when you thwack it if it’s tight enough.  Mine doesn’t ping so much; it kind of goes “pppbbbbffffttt.”  I’ve futzed with it over and over again and not gotten it much better. 

Robinson uses one like this.  He suggest just putting the sawblade in, and then pulling back the bottom piece until it’s tight enough.  Eureka!  I ordered it within minutes of finishing the video.  Less than 3 months of learning this stuff and already I’m replacing tools.  He also showed a trick for when you’ve got the blade through a piece of shell and are trying to tighten it, wherein you squeeze the jaws a bit while you tighten the blades, and then when you let off the pressure, it tightens up even more, which allowed me to get a much more taut blade in the saw I have.  I even got a little ping out of that baby.

I’ve been on the lookout for an 8HB pencil, and haven’t been able to find any, even online.  But in the video he mentioned a drafting lead.  So I’ll have to consider that.  I wanted a sharp pencil for scribing, but I think I’m going to give the Exacto knife option a try again, having watched him do it.  I think I might’ve been pressing harder than I needed to. 

Other tips and tricks I picked up from the video:
Acetone will remove the paper from the shell.  Acetone is way cheaper than the superglue remover I buy for $15/oz. from Stew-Mac.  I used it to reclaim some shell bits after I got tired sawing yesterday.  It’s still messy, stinky work, but much more effective than trying to soak it in that other stuff.  That’ll be a post in itself. 

He uses .060” shell.  I’ve been using .040”.  The thicker is more expensive, but I’m wondering if it isn’t worth it, because it seems much sturdier for its thickness—less breakage.  He showed this picture of a curlicue he did as a single piece.  It blew my mind.

He sets up and glues his inlays into a single plate or several plates (in the case of a large project) of smaller pieces, and then inlays the whole thing at once.  I haven’t done that, but will.  On smaller plates, he often does this gluing on a flexible metal wood scraper.  Bending the scraper, a la an ice cube tray, will pop the plate off the scraper, even if the superglue stuck.

He also showed that the air bubbles in the superglue once dry were just part of the process, and usually showed up, and what to do to take care of them. 

When he put his piece in the routed cavity the first time, it didn’t fit either.  And when he was done, he evaluated his piece and showed the imperfections.  I don’t feel so bad about having the same issues if the expert has to deal with the same stuff.

No cutting since Sunday, but that’s probably okay.  My arms are finally feeling back to normal, and the slice in my thumb is healing nicely.  Ironically, I closed it up using superglue, as is my wont.  I did get mail Monday, though.  I love the smell of Stew-Mac in the morning.  It smells like luthiery.

I had Scott pick me up a new dust mask when he was at Ace, but the rest came from Stew-Mac.  I bought two pieces of wood meant for headstocks, one piece of ebony, one piece of rosewood.  I wanted to see their color and give them a try, and these were a nice size and price to practice on.  I’ll still put project #4 into the alder and save these for later.

I got the graver and the handle to go with, but no instructions on how to attach one to the other.  See what I mean about them assuming some woodworking knowledge?  I pled my case to Google, and confirmed that I’d have to drill it, which was my guess.  Then what?  Glue?  Not sure.  I guess I have to sharpen it, too.  I need to check with Stew-Mac and see if it came pre-sharpened.

The nice thing about starting something new is that you’re kept humble by daily reminders of your ignorance.

And I got the engraving filler stick, which looks like a big black crayon.  It’s heavy on the wax, from what I read, so perhaps that’s exactly what it is.

That’s the latest.  Stay tuned.