GET INLAID

I had decided to do the design twice, in two different sizes, and I needed to saw out the pieces for the second design Saturday, and finished my sawing on Sunday. As I was pondering the 2nd design, I decided also to try something that had been suggested in my books, which was to fill in the empty space of the design with the same kind of wood as the ground, so that ultimately you ended up with a single plate, and a single cavity (with no fiddly bits) to rout.

So I trimmed off a section of ebony from the piece I was going to inlay, and put the patterns on them the other day, and it was ready to saw. Ebony is a hardwood, but it’s a lot softer than shell, and dusty! I can understand now why Larry Robinson suggested 1/8” wood for inlay. That’s what this was, and it had a tendency to split along the grain lines as it was. Which means that the 1/16th inch maple I bought is unlikely to survive the sawing, and I’m going to have to get more in the greater thickness. But I need to make a trip to Woodcraft anyway. More on that later.

In a moment that filled my heart with pride, I got all of the pieces not only cut out without breaking them, but when I put them together they all fit, first try, without any additional filing or fudging! That can only mean that my sawing is getting more accurate. Yay!

So I glued the pieces together and then worked on scribing the bigger piece already Duco-cemented to the ebony. Because it was all straight lines, it went quite well using the Exacto knife, and because I was judicious with the cement, it popped right off.

I cleaned the glue off and then went over the lines with my knife to make them deeper and easier to see, and also to define inside corners, where it’s hard to get the knife into.

By then, the smaller piece was set, and I worked on cleaning up the dried excess superglue off its edges with the Exacto knife, checking it in the light to see if I got it all. At that point I could see some minor gaps between the pieces, but they’ll be unnoticeable once the piece is actually inlaid.

I placed it on the ebony below and to the right of its big brother and cemented it down. While that set, I did a little gardening out front while they dried. When I got back in, I started scribing it.

I jumped the gun a bit, though, because the piece came loose half-way through the scribing. Doh! So I lined it up again, clamped the side that was done and finished the scribing.

Then I unclamped the piece and went over the lines just like the other one.

I finished up by scraping chalk dust onto the wood and rubbing it into the scribed lines to highlight them prior to routing.

And if I had stopped here, the day would’ve been an unqualified success. Good sawing. Good assembly. Good scribing. However, I decided to press on to routing. More on that tomorrow…

I decided to try to get a little pre-barbecue shell sawing in Saturday morning. I fired up the tunes, donned my ever-so-stylin’ protective gear, and started sawing. Screwed up the first piece. Screwed up the second piece. As you can see:

It was not going well already. So I took a deep breath, and tried again. But this time, out of sheer frustration, I craned my head around so I could see in front of the blade where I was cutting, instead of from the side, or from the back. And wouldn’t you know it, but I was sawing much straighter. Eureka!

I have been legally blind in my left eye since I was a year old as the result of a glass-meets-eyeball accident. I can see, but everything is in very, very soft focus, which is not useful when it comes to precision activities. And I can’t help but wonder if my handicap actually handicapped me in this case. Because once my right eye was around the corner, I found sawing much easier. Check out the results, before any cleanup with files or sandpaper, of doing it that way, especially as compared to the previous two:

So yes, my epiphany was “I’ll saw better if I see better,” which should be self-evident, but I wasn’t aware of how much I wasn’t seeing until I tried a new point of view, because I was seeing the way I always see, and don’t really think about it anymore.  And I don’t think of it as a handicap anymore until it proves to be one.  Which is why Scott hung one of those dangling tennis balls from the ceiling of the garage, because he feared I was going to drive right into the kitchen one of these days, as my depth perception is nonexistent.  (I wasn’t going to, but it makes him feel better.)

After that, the sawing continued to go pretty well. I’d be lying if I said it was perfect, but it was a damn sight better than anything I’d sawed heretofore. A little sanding on a small flat sanding block I made to make the edges really crisp, and cleaning out of the crotch of the V with the abrasive cord, and it was looking really good. The abrasive cord is going to be really nice to have, once I figured out how to give myself a third hand to use it.

Next thing I needed to do was to glue up two more pattern pieces to shell to replace the 2 I’d wrecked to start. I’ve read about people using white glue instead of superglue to do so, and Larry Robinson mentioned it in the video last night, too, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’d read an article, too, about it last night and the author said I could get the patterns off the shell with just a little soapy water.

I will never superglue a pattern to shell again.

Although I had a little problem with the small ends coming up as I sawed, (which I can fix by using a bit more glue and letting it cure longer—it only sat half an hour), it was delightful to use, and the paper peeled right off the shell. I didn’t even need soapy water. Beautiful. White glue is cheaper, it doesn’t make my eyes hurt to use it, no more screwing around with acetone to reclaim my shell, and a lot less sanding to do if I don’t have to take the paper off, too, as I do with the superglue. I wish I’d tried it sooner.

So I sawed those, and the sawing of the 10 pieces took about an hour. I was going to be able to glue the pieces together before I left, too. That was where I’d see how good a sawing job I did. I put the pattern on the ebony I’m using as a ground, and then a piece of wax paper over that.

As I put them together, I only glued my finger to a piece twice. (Oh yes.) And I only had to file one little end of one piece to get it to fit. I think it looks pretty good. In fact, it’s probably the best sawing job I’ve done yet, in terms of both precision of the individual pieces and their fit together. No major gaps. I am proud.

Here it is with the pattern removed, and against the ebony. I think I will actually be able to use my Exacto knife to scribe this one, because it’s all straight lines.

While I was cleaning up, I decided to take that spare piece of wood that is already cut to sanding block size and make a second one. No inlay on this one, though.

As I was walking into the house, the glare from Scott’s windshield caught me in silhouette. That hairdo required entry into the historical record.

I cleaned up the excess glue from the edges of the shell after I removed the design from the wax paper Saturday night. It’s all set for scribing. I have a good feeling about this one.

So I watched Larry Robinson video 3 of 3 tonight, wherein I watched the man cut out a signature.  A FUCKING SIGNATURE.  He has mad sawing skills.  It’s a wonder to behold, and honestly, it blows my mind.  Think I can ingratiate myself with him adequately that he’ll leave me said sawing skills in his will?  As I saw the result (no pun intended), I could only picture myself cutting through the signature 16 times before I finally gave up.  And just to add to the level of difficulty, he cut it out of a $300 piece of 18K gold.  No pressure! Good videos.  I’m glad I watched them, although it’s a little like watching Tommy Emmanuel perform on guitar.  You are simultaneously attacked by the breathtaking virtuosity and the sad reality that you will never, ever be that good.  And yet, even so, I’m glad that SOMEONE is able to create such beauty in this world, even if it ain’t me babe, no, no, no, it ain’t me babe.  I’m bummed I have this barbecue to go to tomorrow; rather be sawing.

I had made this original drawing 400% larger than the original clipart. Logic would dictate, then, that when I was done with the tracing I would shrink it down to 25%. But I started thinking that those pieces would be very small to work with, so I shrunk it only to 35% and was a lot happier with the size. Except at that size, I couldn’t get the entirely of the pointy bits on a single piece of MOP as I’d planned. I could at 25%. Such a dilemma.

I decided to run both sizes, and check to see if I had enough of the donkey’s ear MOP abalam to cover the bigger size. If I didn’t, I’d go smaller.

I did have plenty of the abalam. But then I decided that I’d do the design twice, once in each size. Why not? It’s not like I can’t use the practice.

I realized that while this is a simpler design than the poppy, it isn’t, in fact, as simple as the single-cavity routing I’d need to do on the art deco one. Sometimes I don’t think these things all the way through. I should try that more often, instead doing my usual "measure twice, cut once, cuss a blue streak" manner. But I am visualizing routing excellence even now. It’s going to happen, I just know it!

After work yesterday, then, I glued patterns to shell in the dueling sizes, and they’re ready for sawing as soon as I’m ready to saw.

After that I worked on the art deco drawing. The original for this was a stencil design, actually, from a stencil company in England that does great stuff.  I’ve used their stencils in my dining room and my bedroom.  When I went looking for designs, I thought of stencils, because they’re already in a format very conducive to inlay. I just have to adjust the lines between the parts. The poppy design (the abandoned project #3) was also originally a stencil. In any case, stencils are very easy to trace, and I only had to do 2 copies of this one. The face will be tricky, but very cool if I can pull it off. And working with wood will be a new challenge.

I have found a supplier of shell via eBay that tends to give me good prices. I won 3 lots of larger shell pieces, some green abalone, MOP, and gold MOP. I will use the gold MOP in the sun. I originally thought to do her body in the MOP, but now that I have the wood, I think I’m going to try that. (Did I just say I have wood for her body? I do believe I did.)

I’m feeling that can-do spirit with these projects, despite the letdown of the last one. It’s only a matter of time and patience. Like anything else.