Assembly board used in the French method

The following is a description of how to use the assembly board and how to make one. Patrick Edwards and Patrice Lejeune have some really great videos involving the assembly board on Youtube HERE and HERE.  Also, I cannot stress enough the value in going and learning directly from Patrick and Patrice in San Diego.

I learned to cut marquetry on the chevalet de marqueterie (the chevalet, for short) using either the Boulle method (packet cutting) or the piece by piece method.  I was quite fortunate to learn this from Patrick Edwards and Patrice Lejeune at American School of French Marquetry. 

After cutting out all the marquetry pieces in either of these methods, you end up with a bunch of pieces that need to be assembled into the final picture; sometimes, it’s a pretty intense jigsaw puzzle.  See Figure 1; this is a fairly simple one.  

Figure 1

The method of assembling the marquetry picture that the French developed centuries ago involves building the picture face down on paper stretched tight over a board.  The French call it cale tendue.  For simplicity in the English language, we’ll use the name “assembly board” as Patrick Edwards adopted.

An assembly board is simply paper stretched tight over a board, much like an artist’s canvas.  I’ll explain how this is done later in the article.  Hot hide glue is spread on the paper (Figure 2), and the pieces of the picture are placed face down in the glue.  

Figure 2

At this point, the face of each piece is on a single plane with the paper.  At this stage, I press the picture for a couple hours to make sure everything bonds well and stays flat.  Once the glue dries, the back of the veneer is facing up (Figure 3).  

Figure 3

The back of the picture can be sanded to even out any thickness discrepancies.  Mastic (glue and sawdust; I use hot hide glue) can then be applied to the back of the picture to fill any gaps (Figure 4).  

Figure 4

After the mastic hardens, the back of the picture can be sanded again to get rid of high spots.  And if hide glue is being used for the mastic and for mounting to the final substrate, doing a perfect clean up job is not necessary.  Hide glue will bind to hide glue.  Just one of the many wonderful aspects of hide glue. 

The final picture is cut away from the assembly board and is ready to mount, store or send to someone else for use (Figure 5).  

Figure 5

If you’re going to store it for any length of time, I recommend sandwiching it between a couple of boards to prevent warping.  To mount the picture, glue it to the substrate with the kraft paper facing up; the face under the kraft paper is the show face.  Once the glue dries, the kraft paper is wetted with cold water; the paper absorbs the water and is easily scraped away.  The hide glue underneath is also scraped away (the same cold water softens the hide glue on the face) and the final surface of the picture shows through.  Since the back of the marquetry was flattened and the front of the marquetry was already in the same plane and flat, there is precious little that needs to be done once the picture is mounted. 

One advantage of this method is that the face surface is flat.  The alternative is layers and layers of tape, which results in high spots on the face.  When the picture is pressed onto the substrate, these high spots must be compensated for or bubbles are likely in the final piece.  Another advantage of the assembly board is that it is easy to flatten the back and apply mastic. 

To make an assembly board, you need a few things: a board larger than your picture, hot hide glue, European kraft paper, water, and some veneer tape. 

I suspect that the veneer tape is not entirely necessary, but it’s how I learned and is probably cheap insurance. 

I’ve never tried making an assembly board with anything other than hot hide glue, but I suspect it wouldn’t work as well.  The advantage of the hot hide glue is that it gets a fast tack and grabs before the paper begins to dry (you’ll see this in a minute).  I’m not sure other glues would work, but maybe that’s an experiment worth performing.

I have tried using paper other than the European kraft paper.  It just doesn’t work.  The European kraft paper is shiny on one side and dull on the other.  The shiny side is somewhat moisture resistant.  This is critical in making the assembly board, since we are going to wet the shiny side.  This is also the side that the marquetry will be glued to in the end. 

To start with, cut some kraft paper so it is more than twice as big as the board (Figure 6). The kraft paper is going to wrap around the board like wrapping a present.  Cut it big; you will trim it and throw away the waste.  

Figure 6

Lay the kraft paper shiny side up.  Now wet the shiny side with a sponge (Figure 7).  It should be pretty wet.  

Figure 7

Turn the paper over so the shiny, wet side is down and the dry, dull side is up.  Keep the dull side dry.  Now wait.  Waiting is the hard part.  While you are waiting, the paper is absorbing a bit of the water and expanding.  When the paper starts to wrinkle, spread out the wrinkles and move on to the next step.  Grab your board with one hand, hold it over the glue pot, and spread hot hide glue on 3 edges (Figures 8, 9, and 10).  

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

The edge you are holding will be the hinge side of the paper and will get glued later.  Put the board flat on the paper and fold up the paper tight over the 3 glued edges (Figures 11 and 12).  

Figure 11

Figure 12

Take a razor blade and slice off the paper about halfway down the thickness of the board (Figure 13).  

Figure 13

Now spread glue on the hinge edge of the board (Figure 14 – you may notice that in the pictures I put glue on this edge prior to slicing off as shown in Figure 13 – woops! But it worked out.).  

Figure 14

Grab the far side of the paper, pull it up tight on the hinge side, and fold it over to the far side (Figure 15).  

Figure 15

Stick the paper to the other 3 edges (Figures 16 and 17).  

Figure 16

Figure 17

Since you sliced away the paper from the first fold about halfway down the thickness of the board, you have some exposed glue to adhere to.  Again, slice away the excess paper (about halfway down the thickness of the board) and discard the excess (Figures 18 and 19).  

Figure 18

Figure 19

Put veneer tape over the 3 edges that were trimmed (this is cheap insurance to make sure the edges don’t lift off for some reason…Figure 20).  Now put the board in a nice spot to dry. 

Figure 20

The glue will grab the paper on all 4 edges.  As the paper dries, it will contract and pull tight across the surface of the board.  Since it is only glued at the edges of the board, once your marquetry is glued to the paper, it can easily be sliced away as described earlier.   

Presentation at Chesapeake SAPFM

Yesterday, I had the opportunity and honor of demonstrating the chevalet and traditional french marquetry for the Chesapeake chapter of SAPFM (Society of American Period Furniture Makers, sapfm.org).  This is a group of people very interested in period furniture, and they are all open, helpful, and eager to learn more.

The meeting started out with a bit of brief requisite business, then I was up to do my song and dance.  In a little over an hour, I demonstrated the chevalet, cutting marquetry using tarsia a incastro (or Boulle technique, stack cutting, cutting in superimposition, all the same thing), the french assembly board, and putting together the marquetry. The crowd had some really great questions and was very attentive.  While I was talking, I think only 2 or 3 people fell asleep out of over 30...not a bad percentage!  The whole thing was video taped and mic'd.  Hopefully, 6 years of having kids has trained my mouth to stay PG rated.

I am glad that I was able to spread a little knowledge of the chevalet and traditional marquetry techniques.  Maybe someone will be inspired to go to San Diego, learn from Patrick Edwards, then come back and spread the knowledge a little more.

We also heard from Brian Landis, who demonstrated how he inlays shell into curved surfaces.  Apparently, shell has virtually no flexibility, so you can't wrap it around a curved leg, for example.  Brian's approach was to route a cavity so he could lay the shell straight into the cavity, but leave the shell proud.  Then he would come back and make it flush with the surrounding wood.

After a bit of show and tell and lunch, Freddy Roman (periodcraftsmen.com) spoke for about 3 hours.  Freddy touched on a bit of everything, including hide glue, laying out Louis cubes, toothing planes, laying up solid lumber for marquetry/veneer panels, and finishing.  It was fantastic, and I hope I can learn more from Freddy some day.

Thanks go out to Mark Maleski (chapter SAPFM president) for inviting me to present.  It was a wonderful experience, and I look forward to sharing with others again in the future.

Going high tech when using old world techniques

One of the key steps in the piece by piece method of marquetry (or element par element, or the Classic method) is to have several exact copies of the drawing.  The drawing is a line drawing, and the "lines" are made up of tiny dots with small spaces between them.  The purpose of using dots to make up the "lines" rather than, say, a line is that the dots make it easier to tell if you are straying away from the cut line.  When I was taking the Classic method class from Patrick and Patrice at American School of French Marquetry, Patrice would pick up the pieces I cut, look at the paper glued to the front, and immediately tell how well I was cutting based on how much white he could see around the dots.

In the old days, the way this was done was a drawing was made and then pricked with a needle all along the lines.  The drawing, now with tiny holes along the lines, would be placed over blank paper and carbon would be spread over the drawing using a pounce bag, I believe.  The carbon would fall through the holes onto the paper beneath.  The first photocopier.  I'm certain Patrick Edwards has blogged about this already.

Thank goodness for computers.  Today, we can use scanners and vector drawings to make this much easier.  Although I'm being a little unfair...I haven't even tried the old prick method (sounds rather derogatory, doesn't it? You old prick...)  Regardless, I'm going to demonstrate the method I use to get a drawing ready for use in the Classic method.  This computer based method has several advantages over doing this strictly in paper, namely the drawing in the computer is infinitely scalable (since it is vector art, in the end), the file is easily stored AND BACKED UP (seriously, you're backing up your system using something like CrashPlan, right?), and the file is easy to share.  It's also short order to grab pieces of different drawings and put them together.  So this is also useful for tarsia a incastro, or Boulle technique.

I'd like to start by saying that I am in no way an expert at using Adobe Illustrator (or any of its alternatives).  I am near certain that there are people out there who know better, faster, easier ways to execute some or all of this.  If you are one of them, PLEASE leave comments and enlighten all of us on how to improve.

The method I'm going to discuss involves using Adobe Illustrator (CS4, specifically, since that's what I have).  The retail price on Adobe software is pretty ridiculous, so if you want it, I suggest looking into some discounts.  Students used to be able to get discounted Adobe software, and some employers offer discounts on it (which is how I obtained it).  There are also alternatives.  See this Lifehacker post: http://lifehacker.com/5976725/build-your-own-adobe-creative-suite-with-free-and-cheap-software

The first place to start is with a drawing.  If you're doing something original, well, pick up a pencil (or pen) and start drawing.  You're going to want clean lines in the end, nothing sketchy.  If you're copying something, I find it easier to trace it if it isn't already a clean line drawing.  If it's out of a book, sometimes I'll photocopy it, then trace it on a light table.  The important thing here is to end up with clean lines so that Illustrator can easily tell what's a line and what isn't.

Next, you've got to get your drawing into the computer.  I scan it into a pdf file.  From there, I will open the pdf in Photoshop to clean it up, if necessary, and convert it to a jpg.  (See the Lifehacker link above for alternatives to Photoshop.)  By "cleaning it up", I mean trying to eliminate stray pixels.  I find it really helps to have the cleanest lines possible at this point.  Try messing with the Levels in Photoshop.  Once you're satisfied (or just plain done with it), save it as a jpg.  You may be able to just save it as a psd file, and go right to the next step.

Now that you have a jpg of your clean line drawing, open up Illustrator.  Place the image in Illustrator by using File/Place.

Once it's placed, select the image and go to Object/Live Trace/Tracing Options.

This will open a Tracing Options dialog box.

I like to check the Preview box so I can see the changes as I monkey around with the settings in the Tracing Options dialog box.  Having Preview enabled slows things down a lot, so be prepared to take your time.  Now monkey around with the settings in the Tracing Options box.  For our marquetry purposes, we are only going to want paths in the end, so I check Strokes and uncheck Fills.  Then I play around with the settings until I minimize the artifacts and get the best lines.  This will pay dividends later as you clean it up in Illustrator.

Once you're satisfied with the settings in the Trace Options box, select Trace.  Now select Object/Live Trace/Expand.  This removes the original image and replaces it with vectorized line art.  At this point, you've probably got a lot of cleanup to do in Illustrator.  I'll show you an example of cleaning up, then move to making the picture into dots.

In the image below, you can see a bunch of artifacts (or junk) that Illustrator interpreted as paths based on the settings we used in Live Trace.  Note that I am viewing the Outline (View/Outline), rather than Preview.

I first use the Selection Tool (V) to select and delete this trash.  Then, armed with the original drawing, I start moving anchors and handles to connect and smooth out the lines.  I may even join lines, add anchors, and delete anchors as necessary.

Once the drawing is all cleaned up (which this example is not), it's time to turn the lines into a series of tiny dots.  At the top of the screen is a Stroke selection (see picture below).  Click on the blue Stroke.  A small panel will pop up.  For the tiniest of dots, I use the settings shown below.  I'm not entirely sure if the Miter Limit does anything, I've tried it with different values and didn't see any difference.

Now go to View/Preview, and your picture should be shown as a series of tiny dots.

When you cut out the parts for the Classic method, glue them to your veneer packs and start cutting, I recommend a pair of diopters.  These dots are tiny.  I have really good eyesight, but I find the diopters invaluable.  I think I picked mine up on Amazon (hell, I buy nearly everything off Amazon).  As a bonus, the diopters are awesome when trying to remove splinters.

Bandsaw "adjustment"

Last year, my family and I moved from Washington (state) to Maryland.  The rental house we moved into has a 2 car garage, so that became my shop.  I have 4 big tools with 220 volt motors.  The tablesaw, the bandsaw, the air compressor, and the dust collector.  Unfortunately, and to no surprise, the garage of the rental house did not have 220 volt circuits.  I decided to mothball the air compressor and dust collector.  I have a small pancake air compressor I could limp by on, and I could purchase a dust collector that operated on 110 volt.  But I wanted the bandsaw and tablesaw operational.

I got a quote from an electrician to install a 220 volt circuit in the garage.  The existing electrical panel is on the far end of the house from the garage.  The quote came back at $1500 if I dug the 18" deep trench across the length of the house.  That idea quickly died.

Instead, I decided to swap the motors on the tablesaw and bandsaw for 115 volt motors.  The tablesaw, a circa 2000 Powermatic 66, was fairly easy to swap.  Maybe I'll post about that another time.

The bandsaw, an 18" Jet JWBS-18X-3, was a bit more challenging.  It seems that the manufacturer chose to use a custom motor with non-NEMA face mount, so that the bolt holes do not line up with NEMA motors.  Brilliant.  So when your motor craps out on you, you are forced to buy a replacement from them.  Or do what I did as I describe below.

Overall, the motor replacement on the bandsaw went like this:

• purchase a 115 volt, 2 hp NEMA motor
• purchase a new sheave
• purchase new magnetic starter
• have a custom motor mount made
• enlarge the through hole in the side of the bandsaw for the motor
• install everything

The motor I bought is a Leeson.  See the picture of the nameplate below.  This is a NEMA 145TC frame.  This motor can either be mounted via the bace or via the face.  I used the face mount.  Ebay is a great resource for things like this.

The original motor had a non-standard motor shaft, too, so I had to buy a new sheave (the pulley that goes on the end of the motor shaft that the belt rides on).  For the motor I bought, I got a BK-28 sheave with 7/8" bore.

The original starter on the bandsaw (the switch, if you will) was for a 220 volt motor.  So, I had to buy a new magnetic starter.  Grizzly had a good one... the G8291 magnetic switch.

Now came the interesting part.  How to mount the new NEMA motor to the bandsaw, given that the original motor mount was not for a NEMA motor bolt pattern.  I discovered a fantastic service online.  Emachineshop.com.  This is an online machine shop, out of New Jersey I think.  Using their free 3D modeling software, you design your part, cost it, pick materials, and submit it all online.  I was able to choose an adequate material that was strong enough but inexpensive.  Something steel.  I am not a metallurgist.  The cost, including delivery, for my custom motor mount bracket was around $75.  I ended up priming it and painting it black with spray can paint.  It fit PERFECTLY.

The next problem was the hole in the side of the bandsaw for the motor to go through.  You might be able to tell from the photo above that the bolt holes for the motor in the new mount plate were covered up by the bandsaw side.  I had to cut away the side of the bandsaw with my recip saw.  There is some support steel around where the motor comes through the side.  I just cut all the sheet metal away inside that square.  It was an ugly operation.  I used a file to dull the cut edges.  Whatever, it's just a tool and it works fine.

The new magnetic switch also needed a different mount to the bandsaw.  I just took a piece of scrap cherry plywood, screwed it to the bandsaw through the original holes (or maybe I tapped some new holes, I can't remember), and surface mounted my new switch to the plywood.  Works great.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this "adjustment" to the bandsaw.  When I get in a more permanent shop with 220 volt circuits, I'll put the original motor back on.  All the original bolt holes are still there.  But I've been able to resaw 8" wide poplar with this setup on a 20 amp circuit.  Not too bad!  And the experience with emachineshop.com was incredible.

Online store

I do a lot of shopping online.  If I could buy all my groceries and gas for my car online, I might never buy anything in person.  Heck, I might not ever leave the house (except to buy hardwood...that's something I still think must be done in person).  I am also up very early in the morning, and sometimes that's when I do my shopping.  Maybe there are others like me out there, so...

I have done a little revamping of my website.  I now have an online store set up.  At least, I'm pretty sure I do.  It tested pretty well, with shipping through UPS and US Postal, payment through Paypal.  I'm working on getting Fedex available, but they seem to be a challenge.  I must say, I now have a deep appreciation for sites like Amazon and eBay.

Currently, I am only selling the European Kraft paper online.  Maybe someday I'll expand, but for now I thought some people might like to be able to order online.  Check it out, and if anything seems buggy, please email or call.  My website is www.highfillcustomwoodworks.com, click on the STORE option to the left.

Homemade Veneer Hammer

I was recently making a marquetry panel and needed (or wanted) to veneer the back in a cheap veneer to balance the panel.  My vacuum pump was out of commission, so I turned to the idea of hammer veneering (at least for the backer veneer...hammer veneering the marquetry to the front of the panel would likely be a good exercise in ruining marquetry).  I'd never tried hammer veneering and didn't have a veneer hammer.

Perusing the internet for a veneer hammer to purchase, I wasn't overly excited by what I saw.  I decided I'd make my own.  The veneer hammer you see below is entirely out of scrap except for the 1/4" brass strip at the business end of the hammer.  The head is a scrap of oak left over from building the chevalet; the handle is an extra cherry leg from a coffee table.  The brass strip is 1/8" thick, 1 1/4" wide.  I bought a 12" length off Amazon for $6.

I took the basic dimensions and shape of the veneer hammer from Tage Frid's article in FWW #10.  I think there's about 1/4" of brass sticking out of the head.  I eased the edges and corners of the brass strip with a file.  I used a double wedged tenon to secure the handle to the head.  I did some rough shaping on the handle using rasps and a spokeshave, just to make it comfortable.

I did not bother securing the brass strip into the head of the veneer hammer.  It's just press fit in a snug groove.  (One reason I left it proud on the ends: so I can easily pry it out if I ever choose to.)

This is not a tool to show off at an art show...it's for working.  The next one I make, I'll be sure to start with enough material at the end of the handle to flare it out a bit, but I don't imagine I'll be so vigorous with this one as to lose my grip.  It's really just a squegee.

I used a brass strip so that I can put the veneer hammer in a dish of hot water to keep the metal warm.  The brass won't rust.  What I did was put a little water in a small pan on a hot plate, then stuck the brass of the veneer hammer in the water.

This worked out very nicely.  I'm glad I tried hammer veneering, and I'm glad I made my own veneer hammer (total cash outlay = $6...not bad).  I intend to use this technique on work in the future.  If you want to see a good video on hammer veneering, go to www.woodtreks.com and search for hammer veneer (or click here).

European kraft paper in America

I recently dropped a bundle of money to import brown kraft paper from France.  Why would I do this?

Because life is ephemeral.

People die, businesses disappear, products vanish.  Things that were once available are no longer there when you want them.  Some notable examples include Pierre Ramond’s “Marquetry”, which is no longer in print but can be bought used (the price continues to climb); cast iron glue pots, which are no longer made but can be bought on sites like eBay; veneer nails, which Patrick Edwards discussed in his blog here
http://wpatrickedwards.blogspot.com/2013/10/weve-got-nails.html.  

After taking Patrick Edwards’s classes on Boulle marquetry and the Piece by Piece method, I’m all in with French marquetry.  Previous to taking Patrick’s classes, I tried marquetry using a knife and the window method.  It turned out OK.  See the pictures of the dandelions and what I call the Hebrew box.  These were done with an X-Acto knife and a bunch of veneer tape.  

Dandelion picture done using a knife and the window method

Hebrew box - don't ask me what it says, because I don't know

I also tried the double bevel method on a scroll saw, but I was never able to control the cut very well.  It really wandered, and sharp turns were a challenge for me.  Then I sat down on a chevalet; by the end of the first week, I felt like I could control my cut.  The picture below was made using my chevalet and is mounted to the front of it.  I never would have been able to do this with a knife, but maybe others could.

Well, if you’re going to do Boulle or Piece by Piece marquetry, you might as well adopt the whole French method.  And that means assembling the pictures using kraft paper stretched over a board.  This is called an assembly board.  Patrick has written about this in his blog, and he and Patrice have made videos about it.  Visit their YouTube site at 3815utah. 

There are 2 critical elements to the assembly board: hot hide glue and kraft paper.  Hide glue is still available in the US; glue pots can be obtained off eBay for fairly decent prices if you keep your eyes open.  The kraft paper that the French use is another story.  It is a special kraft paper that is shiny on one side, dull on the other.  You use it by wetting the shiny side, which is somewhat resistant to the water.  It absorbs some of the water, but doesn’t totally degrade.  You then glue the board to the dull side of the kraft paper.  As the paper dries, it pulls tight across the board.  Voila, an assembly board is ready for a picture to be glued to it.  The kraft paper is also fairly strong, which is useful when you’re slathering hide glue on it.  The hide glue tends to pull on the paper as it dries; if the paper is weak, it will rip due to this pulling.

When I left Patrick’s first class, I thought I might be able to find a different paper that could be used.  Something available in North America.  I searched across the internet and purchased several different types of paper that I thought might work.  Most didn’t work at all. When I wetted them, they turned to mush.  One paper almost worked; it had a shiny side and a dull side, I could make an assembly board with it, I could mount pictures to it, but it is weak and tears easily, especially when the hide glue dries.

Apparently, Patrick was right when he said that papers in North America just don’t work.

Having seen so many things disappear in my relatively short time, and knowing how much has disappeared in the past, I thought about the European kraft paper.  It’s not available in North America (that I can find).  What if Europe suddenly moved away from it?  What if it, too, disappeared?  I enjoy marquetry and have found a method that works for me.  I decided I needed a stock pile, enough to last me.

I searched all over for a cheap way to get the European kraft paper.  There just wasn’t an easy way.  I finally contacted a company in France.  They had a minimum number of rolls they would ship to the US.  Geez, I really only wanted one roll.  But maybe other people wanted just one roll?

So I bit the bullet.  I now have several full rolls of kraft paper, the exact same stuff that Patrick Edwards uses, sitting in my shop.  Well, they’re standing really, like soldiers on guard. 

Ten-hut!

These rolls are 250 m (that’s about 275 yards) long, 120 cm wide, 90 g/m², just like what Patrick uses.

I am making these rolls of European kraft paper available to the marquetry community at a great rate.  You won’t need to wire money to a company in France, hire a company to get the paper through customs, or store multiple rolls in your shop which are far more than you’ll ever use.  For $550 plus actual shipping charges, I’ll crate a roll and ship it to you.   Contact me with an address and I’ll find out the shipping charge for you.  

UPDATE: I will also sell lengths of kraft paper at $3/yard plus shipping.