amargulies
New member
I'm somewhat new to woodworking and veneering and would greatly appreciate your help. I'm making a veneered, decorative wood box - my own design, similar to several 19th cent. French boxes I've seen. I think I have most of it properly planned, but I'd appreciate help with a few issues.
My box will be about 16 1/2" x 12 1/2" x 3 1/2" - assembled as a closed box, with the lid later sawn apart about 1/3 of the way below the top. Lid and sides have central veneered panels of amboyna burl. The lid will have several courses of borders of tulipwood crossbanding, separated by 1/16" inlaid brass strips, and the sides will have the same tulip crossbanding and brass strips above and below the central, wide amboyna strip. Substrate is quartersawn Honduras mahogany, counterveneered with seagrass mahogany.
A couple questions - I plan to use hide glue - hot glue for the veneering, and Old Brown Glue for the joinery. What should I use to glue my inlaid brass strips? Will either of these be adequate? I was told fish glue is the best for metal, shell, etc. but I don't know exactly why. Please advise.
I plan to first veneer the amboyna center panels, then trim with cutting gauge and remove excess to make room for crossbanding. What process and glue should I use for the crossbanding? If I hammer veneer hot glue, I see 2 problems - normally the tulipwood crossbanding would have veneer tape, because it's made up of many 3-4" strips of tulipwood (the tulip veneer sheets are only 4-5" wide). The veneer tape would be in the way of hammer veneering. However, perhaps when I joint up the tulipwood sheets, I could glue them edge-to-edge and later remove the veneer tape. The other issue is which way to scrape with the hammer - if I scrape towards the seam and center of the box, the glue will ooze out the seam between the crossbanding and center amboyna panel (maybe ok?). If I scrape towards the outer edges, maybe the crossbanding would separate from the center panel and there would be a gap at the seam. Or, maybe once the glue starts to stick, it won't move?
Another issue is my corner joinery - I plan to have chamfered corners, to be cut after the box is assembled and glued. When initially gluing the box (before chamfers) I planned to cut rabbets on each end at the corners, as a sort of drawer joint (not a locked drawer joint). Is this good enough? The box will eventually hold a set of Japanese kitchen knives (somewhat heavy), but will be handled with great care and kept stored at home. Do I need biscuits or splines for strength? It seems like maybe the joint with 2 rabbets is almost equivalent, and just as strong as biscuits. Thank you all very much for any help. I'd love to email photos of my design to anyone who's interested or could help me, since I don't see how to post them here. This might help explain my joinery as well.
One other final question - historically, at what stage would the various veneers have been applied - for crossbanding in particular, before or after glue-up? I'm concerned about where the veneer edges meet at the chamfered corners. If I were to apply all crossbanding before glue-up, then cut chamfered corners, then veneer the now-exposed corners, the edges of the side panel crossbanding would be exposed. Would this look bad? My solution is to only veneer the amboyna before glue-up, and veneer the amboyna corners afterwards. Maybe the burl pattern would obscure the visible edges. For the crossbanding, I'd think it's almost as easy to just veneer all the crossbanding after the box is glued and assembled. Then, I can have perfectly fitting (maybe mitered?) crossbanding at the corners. What do you think, and how was this done historically? THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ANY HELP.
Adam
My box will be about 16 1/2" x 12 1/2" x 3 1/2" - assembled as a closed box, with the lid later sawn apart about 1/3 of the way below the top. Lid and sides have central veneered panels of amboyna burl. The lid will have several courses of borders of tulipwood crossbanding, separated by 1/16" inlaid brass strips, and the sides will have the same tulip crossbanding and brass strips above and below the central, wide amboyna strip. Substrate is quartersawn Honduras mahogany, counterveneered with seagrass mahogany.
A couple questions - I plan to use hide glue - hot glue for the veneering, and Old Brown Glue for the joinery. What should I use to glue my inlaid brass strips? Will either of these be adequate? I was told fish glue is the best for metal, shell, etc. but I don't know exactly why. Please advise.
I plan to first veneer the amboyna center panels, then trim with cutting gauge and remove excess to make room for crossbanding. What process and glue should I use for the crossbanding? If I hammer veneer hot glue, I see 2 problems - normally the tulipwood crossbanding would have veneer tape, because it's made up of many 3-4" strips of tulipwood (the tulip veneer sheets are only 4-5" wide). The veneer tape would be in the way of hammer veneering. However, perhaps when I joint up the tulipwood sheets, I could glue them edge-to-edge and later remove the veneer tape. The other issue is which way to scrape with the hammer - if I scrape towards the seam and center of the box, the glue will ooze out the seam between the crossbanding and center amboyna panel (maybe ok?). If I scrape towards the outer edges, maybe the crossbanding would separate from the center panel and there would be a gap at the seam. Or, maybe once the glue starts to stick, it won't move?
Another issue is my corner joinery - I plan to have chamfered corners, to be cut after the box is assembled and glued. When initially gluing the box (before chamfers) I planned to cut rabbets on each end at the corners, as a sort of drawer joint (not a locked drawer joint). Is this good enough? The box will eventually hold a set of Japanese kitchen knives (somewhat heavy), but will be handled with great care and kept stored at home. Do I need biscuits or splines for strength? It seems like maybe the joint with 2 rabbets is almost equivalent, and just as strong as biscuits. Thank you all very much for any help. I'd love to email photos of my design to anyone who's interested or could help me, since I don't see how to post them here. This might help explain my joinery as well.
One other final question - historically, at what stage would the various veneers have been applied - for crossbanding in particular, before or after glue-up? I'm concerned about where the veneer edges meet at the chamfered corners. If I were to apply all crossbanding before glue-up, then cut chamfered corners, then veneer the now-exposed corners, the edges of the side panel crossbanding would be exposed. Would this look bad? My solution is to only veneer the amboyna before glue-up, and veneer the amboyna corners afterwards. Maybe the burl pattern would obscure the visible edges. For the crossbanding, I'd think it's almost as easy to just veneer all the crossbanding after the box is glued and assembled. Then, I can have perfectly fitting (maybe mitered?) crossbanding at the corners. What do you think, and how was this done historically? THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ANY HELP.
Adam
