Thread: Best way to make banding

I use a scalpel (model 10A) and steel ruler (light cut first, then three more strokes to finish off), or a veneer cutter...

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There is also a cool home-made offset tool for making strips: A Better Way to Add Stringing and Banding - FineWoodworking

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bearing in mind that it is only 2 mm thick, I suggest a slitting cutter in a Stanley #45, #55 or a Record #405.

If you don't have a combination plane and slitting cutter, my second choice would be a cutting gauge.

Third choice would be a batten and veneer saw -- which might become my first choice if the Jarrah is particularly brittle.

I'd also clean up the cut edges using a veneer shooting board.


Are the strips to be inlaid into a solid wood top, or will they be laid up with other veneers?

Thanks ian, the strips are to be laid over a joint line of a drop-in veneered lid panel and the box sides. The lid panel is not an exact fit in the rebate cut in the top of the box sides, so the joint line needs to be covered

so 6 mm is the diameter of your smallest router bit, or a design element?

I suggest you cut the banding over width and sneak up to the required width using a long grain shooting board

I used to cut a lot of this (as you know) and I used a guillotine. You need one of the type of guillotine that has a solid bar that comes down and clamps the stock right beside where the blade will cut. I had a homemade jig which was pressed up against the guillotine, with long interchangeable spacers to give the required width. Insert a 6 mm spacer, and cut away repetitively. Then I’d pick up a handful and weed out the ones with splits.

I know that type of guillotine is not common so won’t help you much now, but if you see one, get it. They are probably the most useful tool going for veneer work. Mine was $15 on EBay.

Arron