Go to an antique store and you will most likely find furniture that stands out from the crowd. This is often due to exotic wood or other materials embedded in the surface. This almost magical effect is known as dressing, and it always seems to improve the final product.
The shape and design of the garment is limited by the imagination and skill of the carpenter. Garments can be intricate and decorative or simple and functional. This flexibility makes grafting an ideal skill to master on your own.
What is a wood insert?
Creating wooden posts involves cutting a cavity in the surface of a wooden base, filling it with new material and finishing the surface so that the final product is smooth and uniform.
Note that the word "liner" can refer to the finished product or the inserted material. It can also be a verb that describes the physical act of placing a substance on another substance. The wood that receives grafting may be called rootstock, girth, or matrix.
The inlaid material can be the wood itself (usually in a contrasting color or with a pronounced grain) or another material such as bone, pearl, copper or resin. For our purposes, we will focus on wooden dividers.
The degree of complexity depends on the size and complexity of the drawing. A novice carpenter can set up a basic form, while intricate and overlapping trims require craft skills.
Why wood trim?
This is why carpenters often work with inserts.
- Embellishment: Garments can add special details or serve as the main decoration of a piece. An intricate pattern in the lining can turn a table or nightstand into a beautiful work of art.
- Practical: Inlays can also have a practical function. Tie inserts often tie the two fabrics together with a visual flair. Similarly, if a woodworker sees a damaged part in a beautifully crafted piece, he can cut out the damaged area and replace it with a veneer.
- Signature: A logo or initials can be equivalent to the artist's signature on a painting.
© Binabina / Getty Imageswood dressing tools
Special tools and materials needed for lining, cutting, gluing and leveling.
Planning Tools
- Mass or Square: Shrubs are usually raised or placed in a pattern. Freelance woodworkers still use scales or squares to create clear and uniform patterns.
- Transfer paper: If you want to use an existing template, you'll need a way to transfer the template before you make the cuts. Copy as an option. Others are templates or regular printer paper.
- Pointed Knife: Use this to trace the outline of the lining material. (Always mark the cuts in the base material with the final backing material, even if you use a pattern or template.) At this point, the knife creates a groove in the surface of the base that helps align the chisel blade when scraping. Some woodworkers choose a special wood carving knife, but any thin blade will work.
- Double-sided tape (optional): This can be useful for sticking carbon paper to chipped wood, or for sticking chipped wood to base material when it is missing.
cutting tools
- Hand saw or rotary saw: When cutting upholstery material, you need a saw that can handle small parts.
- Chisels : Sharp chisels clear the hole where the lining will be attached to the base material. It is possible to cut entire holes with a chisel, but most carpenters prefer to mill the bulk of the wood and then clean up the edges with the chisel.
- Router : The plunge router easily removes most of the bus structure.
- CNC Router (Optional): A computer-controlled milling machine capable of extremely precise and accurate work. This allows carpenters to take inlays to new levels of sophistication and detail.
Adhesive
- Adhesive: Holds dressing material in place. Common adhesives include wood glue, CA glue (such as Super Glue), and epoxy.
Polishing tools
- Power saw or hand planer (optional). If your deck extends too far from the base, remove most of it with a jigsaw or hand planer. This step is optional. Often the liner is close enough to the drain that it can be smoothed out immediately.
- Orbital sander: blends the groove layer with the substrate.
- More glue: A favorite carpentry trick is to mix sawdust with CA glue or epoxy and fill the gaps between the primer and the base material.
Inlay vs Marquetry
Grafting is sometimes confused with grafting, which is a similar technique. Grafting is the art of cutting different shapes from different sheets and then assembling them into a final image that is placed on an object. Grafting is usually more complex than grafting and works well with thin wire material.
