Cats Paw Project

This project started because I wanted to do an Inlay where I manually did every step. I purchased some White Mother of Pearl blanks from Stewart McDonald along with a jewlers saw. As every project starts, I started with a cat's paw design, printed it out, then cut it out and glued it to the blank. I just use TiteBond White Glue and everything comes off very easily with a little sanding. Then using the jewlers saw I cut each of the shapes out. I was not exact with the blade but was able to sand them to the approximate shapes I needed with my Dremel. I then wrote on them in pencil (RP, R1, R2 etc) so that I knew which piece was which. I then super glued each of the pieces to the board. Once they were secure I then took my scribe and outlined the shapes.

I then pried the pieces of using a chisel. Then using my Dremel I routed out the appropriate areas. There is a relationship you will start to learn between how close you route to your scribe lines. Mine is just starting to develop after probably a couple of dozen routing projects. For this project I routed only half of the depth of the MOP. I used the 1/32 blade for the entire project, although I could have switched between a larger one for the paws and back to the smaller for the toes. Once I was done and could almost fit the pieces in I increased the depth to a little over the thickness of the MOP.

Then I took my sanding bit and sanded the sides in the block of wood until the piece slips in with a little pressure. This also has a distinct feel to it that I am starting to learn. Once your at that stage, I mix my epoxy, ebony shavings up and apply liberally, then push all the pieces in and clamp.

After clamping and drying this is what it looks like in the morning :-)

After sanding with 80-100 grit sandpaper.  This is where I still have a hard time.  As you can see several of the parts of inlay look black or like they are starting to wear off.  In reality it is the epoxy with the ebony mixed into it that is obscuring the inlay.  I always get nervous at this point wondering if I should sand some more or did I sand too much?  However with this one I know my routes were fairly deep and I probably have quite a bit to go before I sanded it off.  But be careful, 80-100 will take off quite a bit of wood if aren't careful.  I will switch off to 150 grit very shortly.

Here it is after sanding with 150 grit for awhile.  Notice I still have some black ebony around the outer toes and the left heel.  I think these actually went in just a little crooked so it is either the high side and it is being sanded off or the low side and still needs to be sanded :-)  So I sand a little more but selectively over these spots.  I am just about to switch to 220 once I can get those areas relatively clear.

Here it is after sanding with 220 for a while.  I also added a little Danish Oil to it which really brings out the color of the ebony.  The ebony has ended up being a very good wood to work with.  You can notice some disfigurement on the top toes, this is due more to the sanding with the dremel.  I was not getting an even sanding motion on the sides after cutting.  So as I sanded down, some of this can be seen.  I can probably fix this in the future so that I sand the shell down to 220 - 360 to really smooth it out.

Just a finaly shot showing off some of the color of the shell.  All in all a sucessful project.  I really enjoyed having control over all the elements and doing everything by hand.  I learned quite a bit to be used in the next seesion.