Thread: Blackwood box with marquetry lid.

Watching with interest.

cheers,
ajw

Wow Alex, that is amazing, well done, looking forward to the result

Paul

It's important to get the veneers onto the backing board quickly, or they will warp and come apart. First, a single layer of veneer tape is put on the front of the picture, then the multiple layers of tape are removed from the back and all the glue residue has to be cleaned off. This is done by wetting the tape with a sponge and peeling it off, then swabbing the glue with a wet sponge. Once all the tape is off, the picture is clamped flat between several sheets of newspaper and left overnight to dry.

When the veneers are dry, they are glued to the MDF backing board using Techniglue, and a veneer is also glued to the back. The sandwich is clamped flat between two sheets of laminate, with a thin sheet of craft foam on top of the picture. This is to force all the veneer pieces against the back board. If this wasn't done, there's a danger that any thinner pieces would sit on a thicker layer of glue and be sanded through later.

After the glue was set the picture was trimmed slightly over final size, and run carefully through the drum sander to bring all veneer pieces down to the same height. It was then sanded using the ROS, to 800 grit, then shellacked and lightly sanded again. It will now be put aside while the box carcass is made.

Mt Geryon marquetry 3.jpg

hi Alex

gob smacked again.

which species have you used for the marquetry and are you taking advantage of chatoyance for any of the shading?

The main species in the picture are silver ash, northern & southern silky oak, rose mahogany, jarrah, Huon pine, a little bit of purpleheart and a couple of unknown species, including that used for the water at the bottom of the pic. I'm hoping that the northern silky especially will show the effect of chatoyance, as pieces are laid at different angles. With luck, I may get the same effect with the water, too.

Beautiful work .....and thanks for sharing this.

Looking in AlexS.

Thanks Jow, hope you're not suffering too much from shed deprivation.

Hi. Alex, just getting a few twinges, its like taking up smoking again. When I walk across the empty workshop floor that is the worst.
Local forum members here in the UK have offered to saw and thickness my stock of timber pieces so hoping to do a bit of handwork, dovetail tissue boxes perhaps. Perhaps next month when things get warmer here.

Just watching.
But very impressed so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The picture will have a frame around it, made from the same blackwood as the carcass, with a thin line of jarrah between the frame and the picture. I routed out a rabbet to the depth of the picture, and glued a thin strip of jarrah in place. This was a little higher than the rabbet, and was planed level after the glue had dried.
Because I've had trouble with Titebond I & II discolouring blackwood in the past, I used Titebond III. It doesn't seem to have caused any problems.

IMG_0940.JPG

IMG_0939.JPG

like the marquetry!

I made up the frame then rounded over the top edges on the router. Then set the picture, into the frame. I masked off all the areas where I didn't want glue with wax, which makes it easy to remove any squeeze-out afterwards. After removing any excess glue I cleaned up the wax with white spirits.
Lid.jpg

I've been dressing the timber for the carcass, and have started on the dovetails. Will post pictures soon.

I've always enjoyed your boxes and marquetry AlexS, it's great to watch how they come together.

When you are doing your marquetry, do you store the semi-completed work clamped between two MDF boards or similar?