Finishing wood scale w/inlay ??

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beretta96man

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Dec 11, 2012
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I hope I'm in the right category, If not please let me know....

So after lots of research this past month I finally tried my hand at customizing a Buck 110 folder. I'm getting set up to do inlay and wood carving mostly on gun stocks but I love knives too so I figured I'd start with something small. I've found this forum site very helpful so I figure I'd ask you guys for some professional advice on a finishing problem I ran into.

One thing I didn't anticipate when inlaying brass and mother of pearl into my new purple heart wood scales was the contamination of brass dust and polishing compound into the wood. I epoxied the scales on, leveled them, then inlaid my designs and then leveled the inlays. Now I had smooth scales but unfinished wood and scratched up brass inlay and bolsters. Using wet sand 320 up to 1000 grit I was getting a gold slurry on my nice unfinished wood so I decided to sand the wood and seal it with my finish (Pure tung oil, thinned). After sealing a couple times I tried to buff out the brass scratches but got that nice dark buffing dust into my wood...again. Used mineral spirits to clean it and do some more finishing but I can tell the dashes in the wood absorbed the dirt as they are dark. It looks ok to most people but to me I think it could be better.

So my question for a pro is what is the proper way to handle keeping the wood clean while getting a polished scratch free finish on the brass? I guess because I'm new here I can't post a picture that would help but I hope you guys understand what I'm getting at here.
 
Excellent question. You will get more response in the Shoptalk forum.
 
beretta96man said:
I guess because I'm new here I can't post a picture that would help but I hope you guys understand what I'm getting at here.
Click to expand...

You can host a picture offsite and direct link it here.

BTW good question. I hope someone has a nice secret to share. I have this problem on paper micarta, and pins.
 
 
wow, excellent work on the inlays! As for the cross contamination problem, If you used stabilized wood, I don't think that you would have the problem you are now. Other than that, I'm not sure how to go about it.

-Adam
 
Adam Reese said:
wow, excellent work on the inlays! As for the cross contamination problem, If you used stabilized wood, I don't think that you would have the problem you are now. Other than that, I'm not sure how to go about it.

-Adam
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Yeah, last week I read up on stabilizing and then made a vacuum set up using minwax hardener only because it was available locally and quick. I tried 3 different kind of woods but I freaked out at the last minute and didn't use them as I wasn't sure if they would be dry enough to use right away. Talking to a wood turning buddy he suggested woods like cocobolo and purple heart didn't need stabilizing so I went straight wood for this one.

It is a Christmas gift for my dad so time constraint messed up my ability to order stabilized wood or test my trials and the extreme amount of time I have into and learning on this project I didn't want to experiment.
 
Adam Reese said:
wow, excellent work on the inlays! As for the cross contamination problem, If you used stabilized wood, I don't think that you would have the problem you are now. Other than that, I'm not sure how to go about it.

-Adam
Click to expand...

Stabilized wood can still have open pores that will hold the buffing compound.
But it should work better than an unstabilized piece of the same wood.

My 2 cents would be to use a darker wood that would not show the dark residue from the brass/compound.
Or... look for wood with no visible pores. That would eliminate a lot of the places to trap the rubbing compound.

For an unstabilized wood I would try African Blackwood.
 
Possibly, try finishing everything before doing the inlay. Finish, buff and polish your wood and bolsters before cutting your relief for the inlay. A few quick passes with a file will take the excess down and then you can carfully sand the inlay and buff to a shine.


-Xander
 
Burl Source said:
Stabilized wood can still have open pores that will hold the buffing compound.
But it should work better than an unstabilized piece of the same wood.

My 2 cents would be to use a darker wood that would not show the dark residue from the brass/compound.
Or... look for wood with no visible pores. That would eliminate a lot of the places to trap the rubbing compound.

For an unstabilized wood I would try African Blackwood.
Click to expand...

Yep, I agree that the open pores are my enemy here. Purple heart was the only hard wood I had in the shop that I trusted not to crack or warp but I will definitely stock up on other woods soon and suggestions like African blackwood are surely welcomed!
 
fast14riot said:
Possibly, try finishing everything before doing the inlay. Finish, buff and polish your wood and bolsters before cutting your relief for the inlay. A few quick passes with a file will take the excess down and then you can carfully sand the inlay and buff to a shine.
-Xander
Click to expand...

There is a few things I learned about your suggestions when I did this
1. In order to level the scale to the brass after epoxying, I stir up brass dust in the unfinished wood sanding both, Maybe I should dry sand the brass and not wet?
2. I could finish the wood at this point, then try to polish the brass but the polishing gives off that black dust/paste that gets in the pores anyway (my main problem)
3. Filing the brass actually made my wood look glittery with brass, belt sanding the inlay leveled nice, quick and cleaner but hits my bolsters then they need to be re-sanded and polished
4. One thing I wanted to do was silver wire inlay but left it off this project for the next. In studying that craft inlaying into bare wood is done so when whetted the wood swelled up against the inlay. I can say I noticed the inlay in bare wood then adding oil finish did close up open micro lines against the inlay and I don't know if stabilized wood or pre-finished wood would close up. Most Luthiers I've seen do use colored epoxy to fill in these lines but I like the tight fit look up close.

I did have a thought after reading threads here about using CA glue to fill the pores and seal the wood but was too timid to try on this project as a guinea-pig so I didn't, plus some of you liked it but lots have spoken of negative effects on that type of finish.
 
I've not done inlay, but just a thought, try fitting and shaping your piece while just tacked into place with a single drop of CA glue. A small tap should knock it off so you can then polish the bolsters without mucking up your scales. I would dry sand the brass up to 4K or 6K grit and then use something like Neverdull impregnated wadding to buff the brass by hand. Look up micro mesh sanding pads.

CA glue finish can be a tricky one, I've found that Loctite Professional Liquid superglue works very well. Do not use the gel types, also called gap filling. Some people use an accelerant, I don't. If you do the CA glue finish, use adequate ventilation as the vapors are harmful.



-Xander
 
Thanks, I'll look up those items. I can definitely use some advice on my brass polishing too as I still see lots of micro scratches. only had up to 1k grit on hand and my buffing supplies are white and green rouge on a bench buffer. If anyone knows of a good thread on buffing brass I would appreciate the link to study:)
 
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