Acanthus Marquetry again

[steveG]

Nice work!

So different woods are glued together after sawing/shaping? Looks like it all fit well together.

[fall]

fall
I’m very much a saw-type marqueteur. I don’t care too much for the knife. Knives have some utility, and I do use them, but the saw is for me. That said, I use 2/0 blades. The 2/0 has 28 TPI if I recall correctly. I’m using a Sakura brand saw with a 21” throat. That’s a parallel arm type, very much like a Hegner or an RBI. These panels were all sawn from a single packet. Allow me to make that clearer: panels 3 & 4 were sawn from one packet. Panels 1 & 2 were also sawn from a single packet, but that was a while ago.

Paul thanks for the info. I recently cut up a packet on my Dewalt with good results as well. easy way of doing it.

[Paul K. Murphy]

Phil S
I think by highlights you’re referring to the putty in the seams. I mix a slurry of hide glue and sawdust and press it into the joints with a knife. During the late middle phase of the process, the marquetry is assembled with the show face glued to a piece of paper. The glue face is naked wood. At that time I apply the putty to the marquetry from the glue face. I like to use ipe-wood dust. It gives me a very dark putty. This time I punted. I just went ahead and used some walnut putty from a can. That was a mistake. I don’t like it for a few reasons, but most of all it’s too light. Oh well, I’ll live. These are just experimental panels anyway. I’ll use them for sure, but it was in this context that I welcomed mistakes. I value learning what I must not do just as much as learning what I must do. That putty? Never again.

[Paul K. Murphy]

fall
Try 1/8” MDF board. It’s really a great packet material. It’s cheap and it cuts like butter. The fact that it has zero grain means that the blade is never shepherded in to some unwanted line or feature caused by your packet materials. I like using it.

[fall]

fall
Try 1/8” MDF board. It’s really a great packet material. It’s cheap and it cuts like butter. The fact that it has zero grain means that the blade is never shepherded in to some unwanted line or feature caused by your packet materials. I like using it.

Paul I have never tryed 1/8'' MDF, but have used thin card board as a backer. Thanks for the tip .

[Paul K. Murphy]

fall
I paid $9.00 for one sheet of 1/8” MDF. That’s about $0.28 per square foot. Easy to like that, don’t you think? Using chipboard? That sounds like a Paul Schürch method. Paul Schürch was my first marquetry instructor. I spent a week down there in Santa Barbara. I still use chipboard a little. I bought some at the paper supplier, but Corn Flakes boxes and the like will do just as well.

[Paul K. Murphy]

Incidentally, I mentioned Paul Schürch in my last post. The marquetry you see here is done in very much the exact method he teaches. Don’t do the putty thing. He doesn’t teach that. I knew better, and I shouldn’t have done it either. Oh well, I’ll live.

[fall]

fall
I paid $9.00 for one sheet of 1/8” MDF. That’s about $0.28 per square foot. Easy to like that, don’t you think? Using chipboard? That sounds like a Paul Schürch method. Paul Schürch was my first marquetry instructor. I spent a week down there in Santa Barbara. I still use chipboard a little. I bought some at the paper supplier, but Corn Flakes boxes and the like will do just as well.

 Paul, you are right about the Paul Schurch method as I took his class at MASW and also one with Bill Hull there. I also did a class with Patrick Edwards at the ASFM in San Diego lots of different ways to do marquetry. I have used cereal boxes as well. 

[fall]

Incidentally, I mentioned Paul Schürch in my last post. The marquetry you see here is done in very much the exact method he teaches. Don’t do the putty thing. He doesn’t teach that. I knew better, and I shouldn’t have done it either. Oh well, I’ll live.

 

Try using glue with wood dust (color of your choice) but use it on the back side not the finished face for larger gaps then when its glued up the color filler comes through the cracks from behind and fills  the spaces / cracks up with filler.

Only in the spots needed

[Paul K. Murphy]

fall
Same with me. Paul Schürch, then ASFM. Yeah, I know about the dust/glue mix...from the back...etc. I got lazy.