# Help Making Perfect Inlays



## rustynails (Jun 23, 2011)

Roger great review and documentation of the jig. I had just ordered one yesterday and am waiting for it to arrive.

Thanks again Richard


----------



## bigike (May 25, 2009)

nice review, I was mainly looking at all the tools you have in the pics what kind of fence is that in the second pic it looks like some kind of incra fence?

That's also a nice perfling cutter in the last pic, I'm still tring to figure out how it's made and used? I have one that goes on the end of a dremel. Do u set the blade so it takes just the veneer off the ends of a box?

You can also use this jig for squareing the corners for regular but hinges too.


----------



## LittlePaw (Dec 21, 2009)

Thanx for the great report, Roger. Now i know what to get when the time comes.


----------



## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

Excellent review…. thank you : )


----------



## RogerBean (Apr 25, 2010)

Good point Ike on the hinges. I hadn't thought of that, but the complete jig would certainly work fine on larger hinges, and on the smaller ones you could just remove the chisel and just use that. Either way, it works. Thanks for the suggestion.
Roger


----------



## jbschutz (Jan 12, 2011)

Roger, excellent review of the corner tool….... and a great tutorial on banding inlay for the same price of admission.


----------



## majeagle1 (Oct 29, 2008)

Great review Roger….... this is one of those tools that I believe just went up to the top 3 for me…. very soon!


----------



## Randy63 (Jun 25, 2010)

Nicely detailed review Roger. Most of us have squared the corners for inlays with chisels, but I'm all for any little jig or tool that makes things quicker, easier, and error free I'm adding one of these to my must buy list.


----------



## blackcherry (Dec 7, 2007)

Nice jig indeed Rodger, will have to put on the Santa list…thanks for the nice review very informative…Wilson


----------



## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

Excellent review of a very fine tool!


----------



## Maveric777 (Dec 23, 2009)

Outstanding review Roger…. I love the fact you took the time to explain how easy it really is. Good stuff and I got admit… I soooo want one…lol


----------



## larryw (Feb 10, 2011)

Great review Roger, thanks for the indepth explanation and shots of the tool being used. I want one now!.


----------



## vipond33 (Jul 25, 2011)

Cornering tools like this have been around for a very long time, some with chisel type handles, some just the small bar of steel, others with simple holders, none with the sophisticated holder as shown here. I have a few and used them for years doing many hundreds of corners but eventually came around to using only a chisel. I think there are a few good reasons for this. One of them is that you cannot re-sharpen these tools well, it is just about impossible to properly hone the interior angles right up to the point. Second, the use of a chisel allows you to remove material in stages instead of all at once. I have had difficult woods break back of the cut line with this type of tool. And the registration is not always perfect, you cannot see what you're doing. You hit it and hope. Third, you already have three excellent tools in your repertoire; your eye, your hand and a wide paring sharp chisel that you may press against the side of the groove as you rotate with force. I have had a problem for years with LV inventing tools for problems that don't exist. Slow down, save your money.


----------



## hingeman (Feb 23, 2011)

Hi, Gene - thanks for this balancing view. I feel I need to address a couple of your points:

I agree that LV/Veritas offer a lot of stuff that no-one should really need [cabinet scraper holder?!]
But LV did not invent this, I did, based on the Veritas corner chisel. And I did it because in the course of the many box making/inlay classes that I have run, this one little job has regularly presented even some quite experienced, competent woodworkers with a challenge and has resulted in many corners messed up using the traditional wide chisel method.

Each weekend I taught [four people] there would be two or three failed corners - usually one chisel stroke too long or outside the routered line, spoiling the final result. THAT is why I developed this jig - and now, every weekend, without fail, I get sixteen perfectly squared off corners. Quickly, easily. If it's a job that you've done many times, successfully, as you clearly have - fair enough. But there are many out there who are not as confident as you are with hand tools, and this is for them.

Incidentally, the registration IS always perfect, that's the whole point of this! Many hundreds of corners down the line, both students' and my own work, I can say that with total confidence.

As to the sharpening, I certainly take your point. But I've had pretty good success sharpening these - and if LV had bothered to consult me when they wrote the instructions for this I would certainly have suggested a couple of ways that they could improve on their sharpening advice!

When I first looked into developing this I was going to get it made myself, which would have meant getting the chisel made as well, of course. It turned into a problem and I won't bore you and others with the details, but the corner chisel would have had a sharper bevel [smaller angle] and therefore less tendancy to chip fragile grain. However, even with the existing chisel I've not found this to be a problem.

Thank you for your comments - it's refreshing to get a dissenting view! I hope I have gone some way to answering your well made points.

Andrew.


----------



## RogerBean (Apr 25, 2010)

Hmmmmm. Looks like I omitted an important point. How the jig registers in the groove to cut the corner in the right place. From the photo one can see the alignment ridges which drop down into the groove to align the cut. As these are machined to about .060 wide, they will drop right into a groove as small as 1/16".










Perhaps this will help. Gene, sorry about the omission. Hate it when I do that.


----------



## vipond33 (Jul 25, 2011)

Hi Andrew

And your points are well taken. Obviously I have never used this tool so my comment on registration was presumptuous of me and reflected only my experience on other devices. I'm sure it works very well - if hit dead straight down. Also I had never considered changing the bevel angle of the cutters, partly because I had not thought of it and if I had, because of the difficulty in doing so.
In addition, if you would be so kind as to elaborate on the sharpening tips you mentioned I'm sure many would be grateful, myself included.
My sincere apologies then, I stand corrected, while maybe still thinking that learning the careful use of a chisel in corners is a very useful skill that may be deployed at times even other than inlay.

regards gene.

so here is something I did yesterday at work, bringing a piece of 1 1/2" bamboo plywood up through the surface of 3/4" for the top of a night table , with a chisel.

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n572/vipond33/corner.jpg


----------



## hingeman (Feb 23, 2011)

Gene - thank you for your further comments. No apology needed, but accepted nevertheless!

I will try to photograph the setup I use for sharpening the corner chisels over the next few days and post it as soon as I can - doing jury service at the moment so time in the workshop is very limited!

Andrew.


----------



## hingeman (Feb 23, 2011)

Hi again, Gene - now jury service is over I can do a follow up to my last post about the corner chisel sharpening:

I was going to post images of the jig I use here, but instead I've decided to post that as a project in its own right here. Instead, a quick tip to anyone wanting to do a swift freshen up on a corner chisel: The usual advice is to run the inner bevels along the edge of a stone - but to do this successfully you need to be able to feel the bevel registering securely against the stone - flat, level, and in line with the angle between the two bevels.

This takes a bit of practice, and gripping the chisel securely can be a problem. I've found that some self-adhesive abrasive stuck to the bottom of the chisel just above the cutting edges as shown hugely facilitates holding the chisel during what can otherwise be a very awkward process.










Then the abrasive then needs to be removed - and a single, gentle [push] stroke on each of the outside faces to removes the burrs. You're done.










I hope this helps. For the full corner chisel sharpening jig project, go here.


----------



## Karson (May 9, 2006)

I great looking jig and a cool sharpening approach.


----------

