Applying Open Fretwork to Substrate

R

Ronnie Young

Active member
I am building a copy of the Thomas Elfe "Double Chest" in Mahogany. The chest has an open fretwork around the top of the upper chest just below the bonnet moulding. The fretwork has been carved from 1/16" mahogany glued down to a 3/4" poplar backing board. The fretwork was sawed free from the backing board after the carving was complete. Any advice on how to attach this open fretwork to the chest? I was planning on using a low nap roller to roll on a coat of hide glue to the back of the fretwork only and then glue the fretwork to the chest sides and front using heated cauls and clamps. My objective is to eliminate excess glue squeeze out in the openings of the fretwork. Thanks-Ron
 
Ron,

I made a chest-on-chest almost the same as yours.  I first stained the background with a wated base dye then brushed glue onto the fretwork and clamped it. 

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Ltd.
 
When making blind frets I brush animal glue over both sides of the veneer and let it completely dry. The top of the veneer is then sanded to remove the surplus glue. I then sandwich the veneer between two more layers of veneer (they can be band-sawn pine or other scrap) and tape the sandwich together with veneer tape. I draw the pattern onto the stack and rub a candle over the surface prior to cutting it out with a fret saw.

The blind fret is separated from the stack, pinned in position and then bonded to the furniture by laying a folded, damp linen tea towel on the fret and pressing a hot smoothing iron onto it to rejuvenate the glue. The towel shouldn't be heated to the extent that it dries out otherwise it too can stick to the fret. If this does become a problem, a sheet of brown paper can be positioned between the fret and towel and any paper that sticks to the fret can be scraped/sanded off afterwards. My only objection to using paper beneath the towel is that it obscures progress and any faults that may occur.

If the fret is particularly long or delicate, it sometimes pays to first bond it to the furniture in a couple of places and then attend to the remaining areas rather than trying to do it all at once and risk stretching/distorting/breaking the fret.

Laying blind frets this way avoids glue pooling in the blind areas.
 
When I did my chest, I used a piece of mdf that was coated on one side spreading hyde glue(Old Brown Glue from Patrick Edwards)  on the coated side.  I placed the fretwork on it to pick up the glue and then applied it to the chest and clamped it on the ends and weighted it down inbetween.  I had some squeese out, but it didn't affect the finish.  I cleaned up as much as I could after it dried.

Kirk
 
Thanks for all the great advice, it is always helpful to talk to someone who has actually done the work.
Here is what I have decided to do. The 2" wide by 1/16" thick  open fretwork is long and fragile and very difficult to place in position. I will use hide glue on both sides of the fretwork to prevent cupping and to reinforce the wood fibers and hopefully prevent breakage. The hide glue will be allowed to dry. The fretwork will be taped into position and the glue reactivated using the method Jack outlined, this will be done in sections and the tape removed. I believe the fretwork even after it is glued in place will be too fragile to scrape or plane therfore I'll sand the top surface with sandpaper on a flat block. I'm going to experiment with a scrap piece of the fretwoork first! I have several hours in the fretwork and don't want to damage it.

I liked Kirk's idea of using a board covered with glue to apply glue to the fretwork but was concerned that the wet glue would get all over everything as I tried to position the fretwork.

I'll be doing this little job next week and will post pictures of the results. Thanks once again for the advice.
Ron
 
I made one of the Elfe chests 10-12 years ago. Started worrying about gluing the fretwork very early in the construction. Played around with different methods until I rolled a thin layer of yellow glue on a piece of plastic laminate. Dropped the fretwork gently on the laminate, lifted it carefully, then gently placed it on cabinet and clamped. Had no glue squeeze and have used this method many times since. My wife and I were with 10 other members in Charleston a few years ago for a pleasant trip through some of the old Charleston houses that are not open to the public. We also saw a private collection of Charleston furniture. In this collection was an Elfe chest-on-chest. I would have loved to have seen this before constructing one. We have enjoyed the one we have and I wish you all the best as you do yours.
Bob
ps:the testing for the glueup was done by drilling lots of holes in scrap to see if any glue squeezed out.

 
Bob,
I'm going to give your method a try on some scrap. If I can get it to work it should save a lot of time!
Thanks-Ron
 
I have applied the Elfe fret using cold hide glue with no difficulty and no squeeze out. I rolled the glue on a piece of mdf using a foam roller to get an even thin coat, placed the fret on the glue and pressed down gently to get good coverage. Then I carefully removed the fret from the glue (the fret is quite fragile and the glue tends to hold it down on the mdf) and placed it on the case. I laid waxed paper over the fret and clamping cauls so that the fret would not curl up off the substrate. This worked perfectly with not enough squeeze out to clean up. Wherever there was any stray glue, it was easy to wash off prior to the clamp up.

Howard Steier
 
I have successfully completed the open fretwork for the Elfe Chest on Chest and learned a lot!
First the method described in Samuel Humphrey's book "Thomas Elfe Cabinetmaker" of carving the fretwork did not work for me. I scanned the pattern from the book for the open fretwork and using Photoshop blew the pattern up to full size. Copies of the full size pattern were glued to a 1/8" thick piece of mahogany and then glued to a 3/4" thick poplar backing board using a paper joint and hide glue.  I drilled out the waste in the open parts of the pattern and using chisels and gouges carved back through the mahogany and into the poplar. It was a long and tedious process. I noticed that while carving the details, that even with very sharp tools, the mahogany would split along the grain when carving the most delicate parts of the fretwork. Using a damp cloth and a steam iron I removed the carved mahogany from the poplar backing board. The fretwork was so delicate that several of the smaller elements of the fretwork broke off. Also, the carved lines were not sharp and crisp but rough with lots of splinters and cracks. Forty two inches of fretwork and several hours wasted!
A better method had to be found. I decided to saw out the fretwork on my scroll saw. This time I glued the patterns to a piece of 5/8"thick mahogany the width of the fretwork. I have a Hegner scroll saw with an 18" throat which prevented me from making a full 42" length of fretwork, but the Elfe pattern is a repeating one so splicing the fretwork would not be a problem. Next I drilled holes for the blade to be passed through each of the open parts of the pattern. After a lot of sawing I was rewarded with an 18" long open fretwork with no breaks or cracks and very sharp, crisp lines. I then setup my band saw with a 3/8"-18 tooth thin kerf blade that I use when sawing inlay banding and sawed off 1/16" thick pieces of fretwork 18" long. Not a single break in the delicate fretwork! The 18" blank produced enough open fretwork for the entire chest. The sawed surface was smooth and perfect for gluing. The show face of the fretwork was easily cleaned up with 180 paper on a cork block after gluing in place.
I used Bob's(bmaus) method of gluing the fretwork to the case. Glue was rolled on to a piece of Formica laminate and the fretwork carefully placed on the glue to coat just the back of the fretwork.  Cauls were used to clamp the fretwork in place. Where the fretwork needed to be spliced, I made a small 45 degree matching bevel on the mating pieces and held them in place with veneer tape. I know where the joints are and still have a hard time finding them. I would like to examine an original Elfe Chest to see if the fretwork was spliced. I had no problem with squeeze out of the glue.  
 
Ronald:
I know you are happy to have your Elfe piece nearing the successful end. Glad your glueup worked ok. I had an old Sears scrollsaw (it was so old it was called a jigsaw when I bought it. I took the chucks apart and modified them so I could turn the blade 90 degrees which allowed sawing the long pieces. Again congratulations and hope your next project goes well also.
Bob
 
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