Tips on this installing this edge banding

[Prizen]

Hi guys,

A few questions that I hope you can help me with.
I have a slot made in some oak moulding. Into this slot I wish to fit some mopani inlay.Please see photo attached.

I have cut the mopani inlay, and it is slightly too wide to fit the slot.
Q1. How best can I size the mopani? Sand it down by hand, plane it, some other way??

When I do get the mopani to fit the slot, it will be about 2mm proud of the oak.

Q2. Is sanding it down by hand the best way to bring it flush?

The oak moulding is a long continuous piece, but the mopani is in much smaller sections of length.Therefore I will have to joint pieces of mopani together. I'm afaid that these joint will look at little rough.

Q3. What is the best way to join the mopani pieces together?

 

[carlb40]

If you have a No 4 or similar i would use that to plane the mopani until it is the correct width to fit in the groove. Next i would make a shooting board and shoot the ends of the mopani, that then should give a nice joint.
Then once glued in and set, i would carefully plane as close as i could to get the 2 levels the same. Then sand as needed.

 

[Chrispy]

Your picture is not at all clear to me but I'm sure you will be better off if you can recut the slot the right size to fit the banding. and cut it a bit deeper too. if the inlay is proud by a half of a mm will be fine then level it off with a cabinet scraper if you have one or else abrasive paper on a block.