What do you use for Satinwood inlays?

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David Conley

Well-known member
I am planning a project that has yellow sand shaded fans.  Historically, they would use Ceylon Satinwood.  I would like to use a rough 1/16 to 3/32” thick inlay material.  What do you use for Satinwood inlays?   And, do they darken with age?

Thanks,
David
 
I use boxwood for fan inlays and stringing.  It shades as well as the satinwood.  I also use shellac for the finish which tones it some.

Kirk
 
Kirk, I never thought about boxwood for inlays.  Have you ever shaded wide pieces so that you can make up one wide brick (1.5 to 2” veneer stick) that can then be sliced with a bandsaw into 1/16” inlays?

Tim, I looked at Gilmer’s selections, the really spectacular boards were already sold out (bummer).  I am assuming that for small inlay pieces, I may want to stick with the less figured boards and let the sand shading do the talking.  If I was doing a larger area, then I would want the satinwood figure to do the talking.

I have used yellowheart for inlays in the past.  It is a little coarse grain for this project.  Boxwood has no grain, but I was also looking for something with a little Chatoyancy pop from the wood. 
 
David,

You can use solid stock. You can even border it with stringing and resaw it by hand or on the bandsaw.  Works great.  I have done it several times.

FR
 
I bought a thick board of Ceylon Satinwood from the internet that was on the plain side.  I plan to use it for the (sand shaded) fans.

Kirk, you got me really thinking about boxwood.  I was looking for something mellower for the stringing than Holley.  Yesterday, I ran into Rob Mallard (and Freddy Roman, …) at Woodworking in America.  I asked Rob about the boxwood and/or hard maple as stringing material.  He said that the maple would darken with age.  So, I picked up a thick board of Castello Boxwood while I was there.  Thanks for your suggestion!!

Freddy, I meant to come back to see you at WIA, but ran out of time.  Do you have any tips on sand shading solid stock, as opposed to shading individual pieces?
 
Just bought beautiful Satin-Wood veneer from Certainly Woods, and solid plank of Satinwood from Cook Woods.com Domex has a huge plank of Satinwood.
 
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