# Advice for making small detailed inlays



## ILoveHardWood! (9 mo ago)

Hello all.

I actually work for the department of the Army Reserve and the unit I am in has several folks retiring soon. I'm trying to get creative with a farewell gift that can be made multiple times and have one in mind that I'd really need some advice on.
It's an engineer unit, so naturally the army engineer castle is what I'm trying to make.

The thought is to make a template for my router that could be used to cut out and then recess small castles using purple heart blanks I have, but the issue I ran into is the fine details of the windows and castle blocks. There isn't a way to route those with a template I can think of.

So the next thought was, why not just make the outside shape of the castle using a template, and then either draw or burn those details into the inlay after it's been recessed into a larger piece of antique red oak or other stuff I have.

I was thinking if routing the small corners isn't feasible then perhaps the rectangular shape of purple heart wood with the wood burnt for the lines is the best choice being so small of a block.

I should mention also, the purple heart blanks are about 3 1/4" tall, 1 1/2 thick at about 12 inches wide so I plan to resaw several 1/8 thick pieces to cut out two castles per piece.

Any ideas on making a reusable template for fine routed outside lines, or any ideas on making a resubale wood burning "stamp" (for lack of a better term) that could be shaved a little bit so those castle drawing details get permanently darkened into the wood?


Or is it better to scrap the burning idea and just draw the darn thing by hand each time?

Thanks for any help out there, please bear with me while I try learning how to do this stuff right. I'm not brand new, but still pretty green with routing and Inlays.


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## swp (Dec 17, 2021)

It seems no one wants to bite on this one. I'll give it a shot because I hate to see a fellow wwer being ignored. Unfortunately, given the size and detail you want to include this is not a weekend task for someone who has never done this before, but this sort of thing has been done for centuries by skilled workers with tools as simple as knives and chisels, where they cut out grooves and hammer in silver, gold, or brass wire to show the outline. It takes lots of time, and INCREDIBLE PATIENCE. I have seen examples of this kind of inlay on wood and also iron pots.
These days people use CNC lasers or CNC routers or both to do this kind of work, but it still requires a great deal of skill, time, and INCREDIBLE PATIENCE. 
There are companies that make the kind of woodburning equipment you refer to, but I have not seen that kind of detail and I think the cost might be getting into the territory where a CNC laser starts to look competitive.
There are a couple other alternatives, though. You could use a stencil cutter to cut the figure out in some adhesive plastic. Stick the stencil down and see if you can apply some dye or stain or something, then remove the stencil.
Printed circuit board manufacturers make stencils that are etched in thin metal. These stencils are used in the manufacturing process to apply solder paste to hold surface mount parts in place for a the soldering process. These are not very expensive, maybe $40 in the size you are looking for, and that may work as a stencil to apply paint. Think of the process like screen printing. The problem is that purple heart has intense color already, and coarse open grain, not a good wood for this kind of process.
Neither of these ideas sound to me like good options and personally I would shop around for somebody who has a CNC laser that would burn the pattern for you, unless you are looking for an excuse to buy that $2000-$8000 tool. Even then I think purple heart is a bad candidate wood. It's too hard, too irregular, and varies in density too much to give an even burn. Cedar, birch, or maple would work better. When you burn wood with a laser, there is a need to match the power of the laser to the wood; less dense woods need less power. And it is important that the wood be uniformly dense or the laser will burn to an inconsistent depth. You may have seen examples of this maybe 20 years ago, where someone would burn something like pine, that has bands of varying density and they can get interesting patterns where the soft pithy part burns away leaving the denser parts behind.
My apologies for bearing bad news. It is a nice idea for a meaningful gift. Tools and time are the issue here.


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## ILoveHardWood! (9 mo ago)

Thank you for the detailed response, I do appreciate the feedback.
I hadn't considered the purple heart grain or density when trying to come up with this honestly and only decided to try using it since the wood was already a natural close enough color to the engineer Castle. 
I'm excited to get into router inlays, bands, etc. but I figured it wouldn't be easy to make a detailed template so small with the tools I have, I was hoping someone had an easier idea for cutting the castle shape out without needing to chisel and carve, but I definitely see your points. 

All the reading I've done on this and videos I have been watching online, they all seem to point to the laser engraving, or laser cutting machines, CNC machines, or some combination of those. And I did a little more research on "how to make your own laser cutting machine" type searching, but can conclusively say I wouldn't have the patience with technology nor the money to put up to purchase a kit or pre-assembled machine to cut them so I think at this point I've simply hit a wall trying to cut it perfect.


As an alternative I'm thinking, I do still want to give something like this to coworkers who are deserving of this and more, so I've decided I am going to try and create a stamp that has all the details I need, and can be used to burn the pattern into a piece rather than paint if I want to go that route. Otherwise it could also be used to simply stamp the same pattern onto a blank of wood with ink or paint. 
The idea of using a pattern cutter was something I didn't really consider before only because I wasn't intending to use paint on these, but given the realization of the routing or etching not being feasible, that might even work better in other types of wood even and produce better results. 
It's humbling to say, but my wife actually recommended that when I was first thinking about this stuff and I of course, ignorantly, shot it down and dismissed it as a bad idea. She has a pattern cutter she uses for project called a bumblebee or something like that and suggested making the pattern and painting a stencil onto the wood and that's it. Well she was onto something and closer to right than I was, so I'll have to bite the bullet and tell her I publicly announced -she was right, I was wrong- 
Lol maybe that'll get me some brownie points!


Thanks for the reply, I always appreciate learning from other people's experiences before trying something myself, and I understand the time it takes to send a message with your ideas. Much appreciated, thank you.
I'll share a picture of the first one I finish in this thread, hopefully they look good!


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

welcome to the forum.
*Option "B"* would be to mount one of the ACoE Challenge Coins (there are several to choose from) into the plaque. That would be well within your skill sets.


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## swp (Dec 17, 2021)

+1 for John.


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

I didn't read the entire thread but from your graphic I would do it on the CNC with a V-bit. Not that difficult at all. Is there a base hobby shop with CNC you can use?


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

.......CNC or not


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

John Smith_inFL said:


> welcome to the forum.
> *Option "B"* would be to mount one of the ACoE Challenge Coins (there are several to choose from) into the plaque. That would be well within your skill sets.
> View attachment 437977


This should be as simple as routing for a router plate..


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## luis_harp (9 mo ago)

very useful for me 
I really highlighted things for me to work on 
it's cool to have a place to share and get advice from more experienced people


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