inlays

[steamboat]

Hello all.

I am working on a pair of curved speakers with 12 leafs of cherry wood veneer with a black stringer in between covering the sides.

so my question is how do I do the black stringers or where can i buy them from.

the problem is that I have cut the cherry and planed it down to 3 to 3.2mm. to get everything flat and looking good I will need to glue it all down and then sand it flat, or curved in this case, so cutting stringers say 3.5mm thick staining them black, gluing them in place and then sanding wouldn’t work as I would sand the black off.

Using something like Ebony isn’t an option for me because its use is very unsustainable and illegal. Illegal logging causes environmental devastation.

So any suggestions?

 

[carlb40]

If you search on ebay there are a few veneer specialists, i have used a few of them myself. Some list stringing. I think it is either dyed maple/ birch or similar white wood

EDIT

I use this company a lot

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Veneers-Online ... ml?_fsub=9

 

[AndyT]

Not my area of expertise but http://www.originalmarquetry.co.uk is often mentioned as a good supplier of stringing. I suggest you phone them and ask about the source of their black ranges and (if they are pale wood, stained) whether the staining penetrates deep into the wood.

http://www.robbins.co.uk is another supplier who lists black stringing.

 

[marcros]

One option may be to use acetal in sheets and slice to the stringing thickness. This offers the advantage that when sanding, the dust wont contaminate the lighter timber. You can use a slicing gauge or a pasta machine to cut it.

i bought some black stringing on ebay- a load from somebody who had retired. I think it is dyed rather than ebony because of the consistent colour in every length, but it is coloured right through.

 

[Oryxdesign]

How about using heat treated ash?

 

[Gerard Scanlan]

If you could find a broken antique made of ebony you could recycle it. However I know that a stained (black) holly is a popular alternative these days. Why can't ebony be grown sustainably, they do it with other woods?

 

[Sailormantom]

I read somewhere that Ebony takes 180 years to grow to maturity so come back in a couple of hundred years and it may be available again!