Rocking Horse #2: Inlays!

I got a couple of hours down in the shop tonight, so I did the inlays on the horse.

I started by resawing some walnut that I had laying around left over from God knows what.

I couldn’t use the GRRipper here, so no controversy tonight!

I ran the pieces through the Performax to get them fairly close to size.

I made a little router jig to route the grooves for the inlays. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do this, but I brainstormed with Bob #2 and then decided to go with a similar concept to a dado jig for a router. I used 2 sided tape to hold it in place.

The router bit I used left a bit of fuzz, so 3/4 chisel and about 10 minutes, and everything was ready for the walnut inlay. Added to the tool wishlist was a router plane. I got by without it, but it would have been fun to use.

Using a combination of a low angle block and a low angle jack plane, I used the shooting board to fit the inlays. I was very pleased at how well this worked, and though it seemed like rather finicky work, I seemed to be smiling through the entire process. I was actually surprised that they didn’t fit perfectly after the little jig I made, but with such thin pieces, I didn’t want to shove them in…I wanted them to just fall in.

Here’s the inlays glued in place. They are proud by about 1/32 and I’ll use a plane to take them down to flush after the glue has set for a day. The pieces are cut for the other side as well, but I won’t bother with that until I get this side flushed. I’ll trim them flush as well, once the glue has dried. I have other things to move onto so I’m not set back by my caution here.

And a close up. They are still proud, but the fit is quite good. I’m not sure if I’m going to get recruited by the Professional Marquetry League, but I’m pleased with the job so far.

Tomorrow, time permitting, I’ll get working on the legs,finish the other side of the inlays, and think some more about how I’m going to cut the rockers!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)