Tools/Materials Needed

If you are coming from my previous article you have one, or maybe a stack of bow ties to inlay. This can be a fun and super satisfying process. But you will need a couple things to get started. First, and non negotiable. Are sharp chisels. They don’t have to be super expensive ones. I actually really like my Narex chisels. And they are quite affordable. I do have a lot of other chisels ranging from $5 each to $100 each, and I can tell you sharp should be your first, second, and third consideration. After that you can start looking at the advantages of other chisels. Whetstones are a great way to get a razors edge, but take a lot of practice. If you want a dummy-proof sharpener, I love my Worksharp.

Other tools you will need are a plunge router. In this instance, I reach for my cheaper bosch router. My expensive festool router doesn’t clear the wood shavings as well as the bosch. In the router you’ll need a 1/4” straight bit. A spiral bit will last much longer and double the power of your router. So use a spiral straight bit if you can. You will also need a marking knife. I’ve seen people use box knives, but do yourself a favor and drop $20 on a nice Japanese marking knife. It’ll last you forever, and work infinitely better than a box knife or xacto knife. The last thing you will need is thin double side tape. More on that in a second.

Inlay Process

If you are inlaying multiple bow ties, you are going to want to number them. Even though they are all supposed to be exactly the same, there will be minor differences that could ruin a project if you try and get the wrong one in the wrong hole. So mark a number on each one, and the corresponding number on the slab where it is going.

Now take your double side tape, and stick it to the bottom of a bow tie. Then firmly press it where you would like to inlay it. It should stay pretty firmly in place. Making light passes, trace the shape with your marking knife. Don’t push too hard. Just make several light and even passes around the entire bow tie. You want a pretty good outline scratched into the wood when you’re done.

Router Work

1/4” spiral bit, set just below the depth of the bow tie

Go ahead and get that plunge router out, install your straight bit, and set the depth stop to just short of the depth of your bow tie. You want the bow tie to sit just proud when fully inserted. The reason you don’t want it flush with the bow tie, is that if you are a half a millimeter too deep, you will have a sunken inlay that wont look or feel right.

After you have your depth stop set, flip the router over and get ready to carve up your table. Make sure you have good safety glasses for this part. I’m not the best about PPE, but I never take any chances when eye level with 20,000 rpms of carbide on wood. Start your router and smoothly plunge about 1/4” at a time. Work up to about 1/16” from your marking knife line. It can actually hurt to be too close, so stay at least 1/32” from your line at the closest. Keep plunging 1/4” at a time, removing all the material you can without going too close to your line, until you have reached your depth stop.

Thats a pretty flat chisel back. Got it with the Worksharp and strop attachment

Chisel Work

Now is the fun part. At least for me. I’ll reiterate how much you want SHARP chisels here. Unfortunately, this usually doesn’t mean a factory edge. So you will need to get proficient sharpening your chisels. A couple options are to use a good set of stones, like the ones from Nanohone. If you aren’t ready to become a samurai woodworker, check out the Worksharp system. It will get a razor edge, even for dummies. The strop attachment is also definitely worth it.

Ok, ok, you want to know what to actually do with the chisels now? Lets finally get to that. You are going to take your woodworking mallet, hammer, or whatever you prefer to tap on your chisels with and start removing half of the remaining material between your router cavity and your marking knife line. Once you remove half, you are going to keep removing it in halves until you have no choice but to set your chisil right in your line. Don’t get too aggressive here! If you try and take too much, you will compress the fibers and leave a small but noticeable gap. You want a really sharp, clean lines when you’re done.

Once you have your negative all carved out in your piece, you can turn your attention back to your bow tie (or whatever you are inlaying). Now you are going to add a slight chamfer on the underside. This will help it go in straight, as well as give the glue somewhere to go.

Slide it in

Inserting is fairly straight forward, but you want to be a little careful still. Add wood glue with a small brush to the edges and a tiny bit on the bottom (tip: do not use epoxy for this. Resin will leave a dark line around the bow tie). Line it up in the hole and tap with a wood mallet lightly until it begins to go in straight. If it looks crooked at all, remove it and start over. Once it gets going, there is no coming back out. So ensure its straight. When you know it is going in properly, use a scrap piece of wood to spread the load out evenly and continue to pound it in. if it goes most of the way in, but won’t go any further, don’t force it. Half a bow tie is better than a broken bow tie. Ideally it will bottom out and you’ll notice a tone difference with your mallet and block..

Mix of walnut and maple dust from my sander

Now, no matter how good you are, there is a strong chance your negative doesn’t perfectly match your bow tie. That is ok though, I’ll show you a trick most woodworkers don’t talk about, but most everyone uses. You are going to take a bit of matching wood dust to your project and mash it into the seam around your bow tie. A good tip is to actually mix in a contrasting wood dust. I will mix maple dust with walnut, to give a little variation. Just like the natural variation in your wood.

Sanding Flush

Give your ugly dusty bow ties 24 hours to fully cure. After that, you can flush them up a couple ways. One of the more fun and satisfying methods is to use a hand plane or a little block plane. As mush as I want this to be the best way, it isn’t. A belt sander will do a faster and often a cleaner job than your hand plane. Just be careful not to dig into your table with the corner of the belt. After you get it more or less flush with the belt sander (or plane) you can hit it with an orbital sander with 100 grit. By now, if everything went as planned, you’ll have a perfect bow tie inlay!

If everything didn’t go as planned…

There is a decent chance you will still have some mirco gaps left after sanding flush. That’s fine too, I got another trick for that. Take the same wood dust you used before, mix in a little CA glue and fill your micro gap with that. Hit it with a spray of CA glue activator and it will be ready to sand in about 30 seconds.

And that’s it!

This type of project may seem intimidating at first, but if you take your time you really can get great results after just a few attempts at this. Good luck, and check back in here for more tips and tricks!

Wood Inlay for Beginners--Bow Tie Joint