Zank Inlay—Monarch caterpillar tray finished

[laflippin]

Best o’ luck with your Zank inlay projects, Tom. But, watch out—Zinlay can be addicting. I thought I’d post another such project, not quite finished obviously, but illustrative of some fairly delicate inlay that includes fragile bits carved from wenge. Shallow redwood bowl inlaid with a snowy egret in maple, yellowheart and wenge:

[Rcnewcomb]

The wenge really worked well. I’ve had problems with it splintering.

[laflippin]

Thanks, Randy. FYI, I used a 60 deg v-bit @ 16000 rpm and 50 ipm feed rate for this project. Also, the wenge stock was oriented so as to achieve (mostly) cross-grain cutting during the male carving step. Here’s the bowl again, after sanding and a coat of tung oil.

[TomWS]

The photo looks like it's the underside of a bowl. Is that what you have?

The grain going across the legs make them look more natural. I like it!

Thanks for posting.

Re: your warning, yeah, I'm sure I'll get bitten once I can get my router in order. I'm at my Summer place and trying to setup a new system. I've already ordered bits without a working system so I guess that qualifies as 'bitten'...

[laflippin]

This bowl is shallow (1” deep) with the egret image inlaid in the inside bottom. I’m not sure what it might be useful for, if anything….part of the motivation for making it was to try out a 2” dia. round-nose bit for carving out the inside wall.

[wood_fly]

The measure of a craftsman is not that he makes no mistakes, but learns to recover from them. And you sir, caterpillar to butterfly, have learned exquisitely. Really, the knowledge shared herein plus the results are a benefit to us all - and your fine recipient I am sure agrees. We all thank you for sharing your story.