Inlay help

Jim Burr

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Reno, Nv
A while back (a few weeks) Nathan did a really cool tourquise inlay on a bowl. Could anyone offer some pic's...ok...a tutorial on how to do that? I have the powder and cruched stone, but as usual...the knowledge is suspect. Thank's to those that can :wave::thumb::type:
 
Thanks All!!!
Dewey...when I get into wood inlays, your tutorial is what I will work from:thumb:.
My want now is to cut a groove into a chunk of bowl and fill it in with stuff so it doesn't look like I just dumped an outhouse (Lit or Loo) :eek: worth of stuff into it. I just had a work friend of mine slice some ebony and cocobolo into 1/16 slices for wood inlays ;):D
Jeff...thanks for the link.:thumb: I'll try to avoid looking like a biscuit and post what ever comes out:eek::doh:. I just picked up some bowl stuff cheap and fast so we'll see what's up :lurk::peek:
 
The main thing you need to make darn sure of is that you fill all the voids. You will start with the larger stuff and fill the rest with the dust. Get your wolverine ready as the rocks are harder than your tools and they will dull quickly. Get it as flush as you can with the sandpaper first.
 
I've heard both versions. I downloaded a video on doing inlays on pens...it was all I could find. The guy on the video said the same thing about crushed stone (turquoise) dulling tools. HSS M2 is pretty hard but I can see both sides. Having turned Manzanita...granite inclusions up the yazoo, I can see where stuff would dull tools, but turquoise is kinda soft. Having Yosemite in my backyard...some crushed granite may be kinda cool.
 
Dewey, my understanding is most rocks used for inlays are softer than tool steel and sandpaper.

Stone Inlay in Woodturnings (pdf)

Yes I love those hardness scales and their ambiguity. The scale he refers to is the Mohs scale which basically relies on a test of 2 materials to see which one will put a scratch in the other. If you look at this scale you will see that there is a wide range of absolute harness in the right column. While there is no turquoise on this scale I have found its range from 4 to 7.5 depending on what source you use for reference.

Hardened steel hit the chart at 7 to 8 so while I will not debate the harder of the two, I will say that stone is much harder than wood and the tools dull very quickly. Anyone who has turned natural stone will attest to that. I guess in theory the tool has to be the harder by a small margin or it would not cut, rather get cut.

Also Steve Hatcher has done quite a bit of inlay work so he has credibility for sure. What is misleading IMO is for example:

When you see that sandpaper comes in at a hardness of 9 your mind thinks it is just one tick softer than diamond but in "real life", sand paper will wear out in a flash when used on stone compared to wood (our minds "real life" normal comparison). Same with tool dulling.:)
 
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