Thread: Inlay on painted timber

Can you leave the inlay slightly proud of the surface then paint? {that is, sand then inlay then paint }. Then carefully sand the inlay down to flush? You might need to clear coat the lot afterwards.

Or mask it off, paint then clear coat to fill the hollow?

If you want to paint the box black and not the inlay... Paint the box then do the inlay.

If you want to paint the inlay black. Paint it with small brush and go very carefully around the edges with a very small pointed brush. although it seems a waste to paint the inlay black. Might just as well paint the the area of the box where inlay was to go, black and forget about the inlay.

Sorry if I'm not quite understanding the idea of what you want to do.

Cheers - Neil

Bing,

If Understand you correctly you want to paint the walnut box black but have an (unpainted) 5mm timber inlay sunk into the top level with the paint?

That’s a tough call to bring the two surfaces level without damaging the paint.

My approach would be:

Inlay the box first. DO NOT GLUE IN but make sure it is a good snug fit.

Level the inlay to the top of the box with a scraper.

Remove the inlay and replace with dummy pieces - its OK if these are a bit proud of the surface.

Paint the box. For preference use spray paint as it’s thinner or consider using a black dye stain.

When dry, remove the dummy inlay and replace with the “real” inlay you thicknessed earlier.

Test on a spare piece of timber first!!!

If it were me I would dye stain rather than paint. Well, actually I wouldn’t do that either as I like the colour of polished walnut

Regards,

Brian