My first attempt at Intarsia

[FrankEV]

I wanted my first attempt at Intarsia to be simple and easy, but I did not want to just make something from a book.   I found an image of a simple Intarsia Twin Mast Sailing Ship on Deviant Art made by cl2007 (no reference to who that is).   The photo image was very easy to manual trace using Inkscape and develop the pattern.

This project required only three different wood colors.  I used Maple for the light-color Sails and Bow Wake, Walnut for the dark-color Ship and mast, and a tiny piece of a medium-dark-color Red Oak for the Flag.  Unfortunately, the Flag color did not come out noticeably different in color than the sails.  I started with all nominal 3/4" thick wood.

Although I have done a little research about Intarsia, I have not studied anyone’s technique before jumping into making this initial piece.     I did, however, have to look up about how to glue-up an Intarsia project.  I found a good very  clear write-up by Judy Gale Roberts on this subject that I followed.

My 6.25” wide x 10.5” tall pattern fits on standard letter size 8.5” x 11” paper and, like others I make, has very fine lines that I print Red.  I did annotate the pattern with the suggested wood color shades and grain directions, as I saw included on other Intarsia Patterns I looked at.

And, unlike what others mention of their bade choice, I chose to cut the pattern using a small Pegas #1 MGT R blade.  With care I was able to cut all the pieces rather accurately, attempting to keep the blade on or just to the outside of the lines, to allow for some fit-up sanding.  A dry fit of the rough-cut pieces found that they fit together nicely.  Just some minor sanding made it fit together well.  

• JFYI, I have at my sanding station a bench mounted disk/belt sander, a small vertical oscillating sander, and a King Arther Guinivere Finisher with a Flex-wand which uses 1/4” shank burrs, sanders and mops.  I have had this setup for many years, but it got very little use other than to use it with a sanding mop to remove fuzzies from the back of my cut panels.   I also have a Dremel Rotary Tool with a wand for 1/8” shank Burrs and Sanders.  

I did use the image of the original work to get a feel of how the pieces needed to be sculptured.  Using my belt sander and the fine Burrs and sanding drums in my finisher wand, I attempted to reproduce the original work as close as possible.  A few pieces had to be lowered and I was able to do this using the belt sander to remove about an 1/8” of material from the back side of the pieces.  I have seen some comments about how to do this, so I’m not sure if my way is the proper way or not.  I don’t have a Bandsaw.

I also did a little research about finishing and found that others use many different products.  In Judy’s write up she mentioned that she uses Polyurethane.  Others use Oil, Shellack, etc.  I do not care for any of these products as I’m impatient and do not like to wait long dry times.  My choices became Clear Acrylic or Clear Lacquer sprays.  On this piece I chose to use multiple coats (6 I think) of a Clear Gloss Acrylic Finish, sanding in between each coat using a 220-grit sanding sponge and final buffing before the last coat with #0000 Steel Wool.  I applied the finish before mounting the pieces to a 1/8” thick Ply backer that I had pre-painted the edges dark brown.

Sorry for the long winded write up.

 

Comments and critiques always  welcome.

[barb.j.enders]

Great write up Frank.  Thanks for sharing your process.  

I will comment about lowering pieces.  It is suggested/recommended to sand from the top.  By doing that you maintain the level back.  

Regarding blade choice, I know some use #7's, I have been using #5's.  Took me a while to wrap my head around the thought of using larger blades.  I then realized, it doesn't matter as long as you are splitting the cut line. Unless you are segmenting a piece; then I would use the smallest blade possible for a small kerf.

Last comment - would you be willing to share the pattern?

[FrankEV]

7 hours ago, barb.j.enders said:

Great write up Frank.  Thanks for sharing your process.  

I will comment about lowering pieces.  It is suggested/recommended to sand from the top.  By doing that you maintain the level back.  

Regarding blade choice, I know some use #7's, I have been using #5's.  Took me a while to wrap my head around the thought of using larger blades.  I then realized, it doesn't matter as long as you are splitting the cut line. Unless you are segmenting a piece; then I would use the smallest blade possible for a small kerf.

Last comment - would you be willing to share the pattern?

Thanks for the lowering tip. Makes sense.

I never split the line.  I use a very thin red lines in my patterns. I cut much more accurately by cutting along one side of the line.  If  I can just see the Red line after the cut is complete I know it is right on the money.   For this work, I can aways sand away a smidgen to make it fit perfectly.  I also cut much more accurately using a small blade. Much eaiser to make small corrections on the fly.  IMHO, bigger blade, bigger error.

Sure, I will share.  Didn't think anyone would be interested in my copycat pattern.  Watch Pattern Exchange.

 

[Hawk]

Great start, so much better than my first attempt (lol) 

[rjweb]

Frank, nice job for your first, RJ

[Norm Fengstad]

you are gifted 

[jimmyG]

On 7/13/2024 at 9:41 AM, FrankEV said:

I wanted my first attempt at Intarsia to be simple and easy, but I did not want to just make something from a book.   I found an image of a simple Intarsia Twin Mast Sailing Ship on Deviant Art made by cl2007 (no reference to who that is).   The photo image was very easy to manual trace using Inkscape and develop the pattern.

This project required only three different wood colors.  I used Maple for the light-color Sails and Bow Wake, Walnut for the dark-color Ship and mast, and a tiny piece of a medium-dark-color Red Oak for the Flag.  Unfortunately, the Flag color did not come out noticeably different in color than the sails.  I started with all nominal 3/4" thick wood.

Although I have done a little research about Intarsia, I have not studied anyone’s technique before jumping into making this initial piece.     I did, however, have to look up about how to glue-up an Intarsia project.  I found a good very  clear write-up by Judy Gale Roberts on this subject that I followed.

My 6.25” wide x 10.5” tall pattern fits on standard letter size 8.5” x 11” paper and, like others I make, has very fine lines that I print Red.  I did annotate the pattern with the suggested wood color shades and grain directions, as I saw included on other Intarsia Patterns I looked at.

And, unlike what others mention of their bade choice, I chose to cut the pattern using a small Pegas #1 MGT R blade.  With care I was able to cut all the pieces rather accurately, attempting to keep the blade on or just to the outside of the lines, to allow for some fit-up sanding.  A dry fit of the rough-cut pieces found that they fit together nicely.  Just some minor sanding made it fit together well.  

• JFYI, I have at my sanding station a bench mounted disk/belt sander, a small vertical oscillating sander, and a King Arther Guinivere Finisher with a Flex-wand which uses 1/4” shank burrs, sanders and mops.  I have had this setup for many years, but it got very little use other than to use it with a sanding mop to remove fuzzies from the back of my cut panels.   I also have a Dremel Rotary Tool with a wand for 1/8” shank Burrs and Sanders.  

I did use the image of the original work to get a feel of how the pieces needed to be sculptured.  Using my belt sander and the fine Burrs and sanding drums in my finisher wand, I attempted to reproduce the original work as close as possible.  A few pieces had to be lowered and I was able to do this using the belt sander to remove about an 1/8” of material from the back side of the pieces.  I have seen some comments about how to do this, so I’m not sure if my way is the proper way or not.  I don’t have a Bandsaw.

I also did a little research about finishing and found that others use many different products.  In Judy’s write up she mentioned that she uses Polyurethane.  Others use Oil, Shellack, etc.  I do not care for any of these products as I’m impatient and do not like to wait long dry times.  My choices became Clear Acrylic or Clear Lacquer sprays.  On this piece I chose to use multiple coats (6 I think) of a Clear Gloss Acrylic Finish, sanding in between each coat using a 220-grit sanding sponge and final buffing before the last coat with #0000 Steel Wool.  I applied the finish before mounting the pieces to a 1/8” thick Ply backer that I had pre-painted the edges dark brown.

Sorry for the long winded write up.

 

Comments and critiques always  welcome.

Wow, what a great first attempt... Hope I can live long enough to make  projects anywhere close to your  workmanship.