Ok, so I gathered some ideas on how to make diamond banding (example below)

Note grain directions:

I made a lot of drawings and cut paper shapes to help me visualize the cut process, one of them being TT’s idea in the previous thread. This method although it produced the diamond pattern, it was well over 75% waste and grain direction was wrong compared to the commercial bandings and period pieces I’ve looked at. So, I went back and came up with this idea:

I stack three pieces, each layer the thickness of the desired diamond, then chamfer the dark part and crosscut strips the same thickness as the diamond. Perfect so far, correct grain direction and VERY little waste. Now I wonder how to chamfer the other side….So I made a little sled with a rabbet in it as shown:

Yes, I kinda knew what would happen…..the tiny short grain could not stand being routed and crumbled to bits. Had I not had this piece trapped as I did, no telling what would have happened.

Anyway, I’m stuck again….I’m so close, but this last chamfer is killing me…..Is there a better way to make this cut or a better way in general to make this banding?

Thanks for helpful input!

JC

My federal table will need some square banding (or checkered), but I will keep it simple for this demo. Once you create banding and see how easy it is, you’ll want to experiment….cutting at angles and recutting logs….we’ll get to that in due time.

First, make a log. I wanted tall rectangles for this piece so I resawed and milled some walnut and ash (I was out of maple and had no holly) to about a foot long, 5 or so wide and just under 1/8” thickness. Remember, with pieces this small, use a melamine or mdf sled in the planer…And do not thickness plane figured wood this thin using a planer!! It WILL explode in the planer, trust me.

Ok, examine your pieces, cut off any sniped ends or whatever and laminate them up to make your log. Remember to NOT start and end the lamination with the same color! :)

You should have below, well, hopefully a bit longer, as I didnt take this pic until after I was done cutting …. stupid….

Anyway:

Ok, Now get a crosscut sled or make a small boat with a cleat (you can get a great video of all this at Tommy MacDonald’s site!!, its where I learned it all from). Install a thin kerf blade or better, a 7.5” hollow ground plywood/laminate blade…this blade leaves a SUPER clean cut.

Tack pieces of 1/4” scrap to the bottom and fence of your sled to function as a zero clearance insert (THIS IS VITAL) You MUST have clean pieces for the next step.

Get a stop block the same height as your log and park it against the fence. Slice off a thin section with the blade to get a perfect mate. Now, move the stop block over however tall you want your banding (MINUS the veneer layers you will put on later). I used about .15 or so I think. But the log up against the stop and put a piece of 2×4 or something on the log to hold it down. Raise the blade to about 1/8 above the log so that it nicks the holder…See pics….

End sliced off stop block and clamped .15 away from kerf.

Cutting the slices from the log

Great, we’re real close now! You should now have the following:

Ok, now if you are like me and screwed up your sled so the cuts are .5 degrees off, you can flip every other piece and all will be well…..just make sure when pushed together, you don’t have a fan shape :)

Now, sorry, but I didnt take pics of the next part, but its pretty simple. Get some veneer, cut it to rough shape (I used dark then light pieces on each side, 4 total pieces).

Use blue tape to tape the stripes together tightly. I put the first piece on, then took the next and made a little tent shape with them and pushed down. This had the effect of making them pair up real tight….I did this for all of them, flipped it over and spread glue all over the back, slapped on my dark veneer and clamped it between 2 pieces of melamine. After an hour or so, I removed, pulled the tape off carefully, and glued on the other piece of dark veneer….Clamp and wait an hour….remove and now glue both sides and put your light veneer on both sides….clamp, wait a couple hours and remove…...Let dry for a least 2 hours, preferrably more….

Now joint one edge of your lamination and you are ready to slice them off! See below:

I learned how to make this contraption from Tommy from one of his videos….Or see his forum in the Federal section….this jig is slick as a whistle….The upper fence is aligned with the near side of the blade and the rear fence determines how thick the banding is. It works like a jointer….The angle peels the cut piece away from the blade….

And, the finished banding came out at .256”....perfect!

If you need questions answered…let me know….and if you use this, thank Tommy….him and the instructors from the North Bennet Street School deserve all the credit for this…..

JC

You’ll need these items….Veneer, a craft knife with a new xacto blade (don’t use cheap off brands, the good ones are less frustrating and they don’t cost that much more), blue tape, glue, paper for your design, a cutting mat, and some sort of roller or large dowel, the one shown cost me about $2. You do NOT need anything fancy here except a good blade….

I normally use Illustrator and print my designs, but a pencil works just as well if you can draw (clearly, I should stick to Illustrator, but this is just a demo…)

Tape your design to the base piece of veneer. This is the ‘field’ that the design will be inlaid into.

Use the xacto knife to cut the PAPER from the design, making sure to cut your inner lines first. You can see in the image below that the veneer is just scored, NOT cut all the way through….Only use enough pressure to remove the paper and leave a fine line.

Remove the tape and the remaining paper and you are ready to begin cutting out pieces of your field. I use a candle and stab my knife into it frequently when cutting marquetry as I find it cuts much cleaner and easier (like rubbing wax on the bottom of a smoothing plane)

You can’t see my lines, but they are there! My point with this image is to ALWAYS keep the knife perpendicular to the surface. Using an xacto will already cut a bevel, you do not need to exaggerate it! Pay close attention when cutting curves as you tend to tilt the knife in those areas.

Where points meet, I like to stab them to define the corner rather than slice them. Just poke straight down on both sides….And always pull the knife AWAY from corners and thin areas otherwise you will tear chunks out of the veneer.

Use LIGHT cuts and go over the same area 3 times or so to free the piece. DO NOT try to cut out the piece in one stroke…..The most common source of error and breakage is too much pressure on the knife.

Here, you see my first piece of the leaf removed and you can see the fine lines left from the other pieces.

Now, you will notice that the knife left a slight bevel when it cut, the bevel will face the waste side of the design, or the side which will get glued to your substrate. Place the field with the bevel down over the veneer which will become your leaf components. IE, the bevel should be widest on the face that is down, you’ll see why in a second. Use the field like a window to choose how the leaf should look and tape the pieces together as shown.

Now, this is the only time you will hold the knife at an angle! Tilt the knife slightly to match your bevel angle (it need not be perfect) and lightly score the leaf veneer. Stab your corners and remove the tape.

Remember, ALWAYS PULL away from thin areas such as this leaf tip and thin areas. No need to wax when scoring….only when cutting….

Now cut out your leaf half just like before….use about 3 strokes, a light touch, a perpendicular knife angle, and wax.

The moment of truth! You should now have slight bevels on both pieces due to the way the xacto blade cuts and you will apply glue to the edges and drop in the leaf half bevel down into the bevel of the field. Smear some glue on the back and use a roller or dowel to smash it in there. You can apply blue tape to the show side if you desire before rolling out….if you need to….or you have lots of little pieces….Now it will look like crap at this point….but as long as you don’t have HUGE gaps, fear not….after sanding and pressing the panel, you will be shocked at how different the final piece will look….just plow ahead!

For this demo, I used some nasty dark veneer that was VERY dry and crumbly and my leaf tips broke off….I did not fix it for this demo, no need….But if you do this, don’t be afraid to piece it back together or stick little crumbs in there to fill the tip area….after sanding and such, you won’t be able to tell….

After a couple minutes drying time, you can cut the other half of the leaf out.

Line up your grain for the next piece, tape it bevel side down again, and score the last piece.

Remove the tape, cut the other leaf half, glue the edges, and insert it/roll it out!

Remember, my dark veneer was CRUMBLY and the tips were wasted….No matter, its just a 17 minute demo! It took 4 times longer to type all this text than to do the leaf…..And I won’t do the stem, you get the idea by now….

Now I usually tape fully over the design on the show side, smear the back with glue, roll it out and let it dry. Once dry, I sand it lightly with 150 grit just to knock off severe ridges….Don’t be concerned with getting the back flat….Once you press it onto your substrate you don’t want any thin spots….Save the major sanding for the show side…..

Well, I hope this helped someone….its VERY rough but should cover most of the process…..

If anyone needs or wants me to press this veneer to substrate and finish it out, I can do that if it will help. I could also show how to wet sand and fill the cracks along with rubbing a finish out with pumice and rottenstone….Just let me know….

And if you attempt this and get some veneer into your project, I’d love to see the results….as you can see, its very easy and is a great way to get some more expression into your projects.

Cheers,

JC

Not many people like Ash due to its white color (looks cheap) and splintery nature, in fact, until fairly recently was considered a trash wood, but its too little too late for the American White Ash for in 2002 an Asian beetle was discovered in Michigan’s forests which is decimating our population of Ash. The larvae of the Emerald Ash Borer eats the inside of the bark and disrupts the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients, thereby killing the tree. Over 30 million ash trees have been killed, and our entire ash population might be endangered.

At any rate, Ash is comparable to oak in weight and texture and is mainly used as (gulp!) firewood and cut into veneers to give people who buy Pottery Barn furniture a warm feeling inside. Most of the ‘fine furniture’ you see in PB or other high end stores is simply advertised as ‘solids’. They can say that all of their furniture is ‘solid wood’ because they make a lot of it from Rubberwood (fast growing latex producing trees which were, until recently, burned at the end of their life) wrapped in Ash veneer. Price out a truly solid piece of furniture these days and you will be shocked. An average solid handmade bed can easily fetch between $1200 and $5000.

I spent a lot of time making jigs for this project, like a crosscut sled to crosscut the rails and other long stock, a taper jig to do the 2 sided leg tapers and an MDF template for the curved head and footboards. The legs were then milled, tapered, and cut to size from some 8/4 and mortised with a hollow chisel mortiser….

For the non woodworkers, these mortises may look rough, but they are quite nice. The edges will be covered by the shoulders of the rails so perfect work here is unnecessary….A mortise this size in Ash (well fitted) will support in excess of 3000lbs)....

Next, the tenons were cut with a router and a straightedge after much agony on how to cut tenons on boards this long. In the end, Marc from the WoodWhisperer show pointed out that the router method with a story stick is probably the most painless and best way to ensure an accurate shoulder to shoulder length. I left the thickness a little strong and fitted all of the joints by hand using a shoulder plane and chisel.

After a dry fit, I sanded to 220, beveled the tops and bottoms of the legs with a block plane and glued up. I regret not having enough clamps, but whatever….

I was pretty pleased with the fit, all of the agonizing over the shoulder to shoulder lengths of the rails was worth it…..Doesn’t get much better than this….

Next, making the side rails/cleats and after I procure another 16 footer, the headboard glueup/finishing and assembly.

Here are a couple so so pics….

JC

Not crazy about the way the black pics up the flash….it doesnt look like that in person….and this pic was before the drawer hardware was added….

Anyway, it was a fairly easy build….if anyone has a question about something, please feel free….now onto a large cypress/paduk document box.

JC

I’ve also included a pic of the Solar Lux for Chico. One word of warning though. If you really want a true black piece with no thin spots etc and have a few (?!) extra bucks, use Speedball india ink for this treatment. I only used the Solar Lux because this is a prototype and I had it left over from the bookcase test. India ink requires less coats and is MUCH blacker. The only caveat is that you MUST pre-raise the grain and sand or else the waterbased india ink will do it for you!

Anyway, here are the pics…..nothing new really….

Edit: PS. I guess I should be fair to the Solar Lux, you can get a decent black from this stuff, but expect to use at least 4-5 coats minimum. Mileage may vary….

JC

Nice medium sheen

Somehow, I managed to ding the leg :( , its still black, the flash caught the dent…..

Here is the nightstand with a couple coats of Solar Lux on it…..India Ink would be best, but this stuff is cheaper.
It looks a little grey here, but when you finish it, the color darkens up.

Here is the drawer with Solar Lux (3 coats) and one coat of Waterlox. A little cleanup is left on the maple.

Here is the carcase with 2 coats of Solar Lux and 1 coat of Waterlox. I will add one more coat of Waterlox original tomorrow night, and follow that with 2 coats of a 75/25 mixture of Waterlox original and Waterlox Satin to knock the sheen down just a bit. The drawer innards will get a couple coats of plain shellac.

More dovetail shots

I glued up 3 planks of Sapele for the top

Remaining will be to buy some more ash for the removable lower shelf and ebonize it, sand, shellac, and mount the Sapele top, and complete the finishing schedule on the drawer and carcase.

This nightstand is being built as a prototype for the 2 finals which will be built from Walnut and walnut crotch veneer. I had a spare 8/4 ash board that I got real cheap as it had ash borer tracks in it (the borers tracks are invasive to the wood however they don’t seem to weaken it or leave holes as you might thing, they just leave s-shaped tracks in it, at least in my case with this batch). Since I will be ebonizing this prototype, it doesn’t matter much anyway.

As a side note, it is projected that American ash stores will be depleted or possibly even wiped out entirely by the emerald ash borer within 2 decades…..This might be over hyped, but the devastating effects so far are inescapable. Sad, ash is a durable, sometimes creamy colored wood that works and weighs similar to oak, somewhat lighter than red oak, but not as open grained. It takes india ink particularly well BTW.

Anyway, pics follow…..I used some Sandply for the first time (got cheap and didnt spring for Baltic Birch or use solid wood) for the panel inserts. This was a tragic mistake. This stuff feels like balsa wood with a bad, splinterey, feathery texture. Stay well clear of this crap. But, since it was a prototype, and I already bought the Sandply….I used it.

None of the pics show final sanding, so forgive any scratches etc…..

This pic shows the sand ply…It looks wavy here, but its a play of light….The stuff does suck, but it is flat.

This pic shows the drawer fitted….pretty good for my first drawer IMHO

Runners, doublers

Missing top, shelf and final sanding

Top goes here, not going to bother cleaning it up…..its scraped and sanded flat

Dovetailed drawer (first one)

More soon….

JC