Steve Wavro, a long-time member of WWCH,
spoke to club members about his intarsia skills.
Steve started out by addressing sources
of patterns which give suggestions for direction of grain as well as
wood color. Study the pattern for changes you might want to make.
Steve suggests enlarging
small drawings because small pieces are harder to manage and makes
the cutting harder.
Typical patterns go for 8
to 10 dollars and can also be obtained from magazines.
You’ll probably need to
make six to eight copies before getting started.
Artists have no problem
with this as long as it is for personal use.
Steve talked about wood sources.
His favorite wood to start with is
western red cedar.
It is inexpensive, easy to come by
and cuts well.
You can also find a wide range of
colors from light to very dark brown.
With four or five different boards
you can get really striking contrast.
Purple heart, yellow heart and
poplar are more expensive, but are also good woods to use because
they add more colors to a project.
When applying the pattern he uses Elmer’s
spray glue or 3M Super 7 but each tends to leave a sticky residue
which is sometimes hard to get off.
It can be removed with mineral
spirits but it is time consuming.
Steve recommends letting the glue
get tacky first.
Some artists use blue painters
tape or clear packing tape.
Steve says that using packing tape
would be preferred for Intarsia since you can see where the grain is
when deciding where to cut.
Put the clear tape on the wood and
then glue the pattern to the clear tape.
Alternatively,
you can use Elmer’s rubber cement, which leaves a little bit of
residue, but it rubs right off.
Steve prefers to use number 5
ultra-reverse scroll saw blades but addressed the situations where
he would use other blades.
When setting up the scroll saw
good lighting is very important.
You need to see precisely where
you are cutting, especially if you are cutting a fine line.
A round fluorescent light with
magnifier works great.
Steve also explained why it is
very important to have your blade at 90 degrees to the table.
Plus, the blade should be taut.
You should hear a high pitched
ping after flicking the blade if it is tightened properly.
Steve talked about the cutting strategy.
Look at your pattern to see if there are changes you might want to
make to facilitate your cutting efforts.
Steve prefers ¾ inch wood pieces –
Steve keeps lots of scrap wood.
Steve stressed the techniques of
sanding and deburring.
Steve recommends numbering the
pieces on the bottom – helps you keep track of what goes where.
For finishing, Steve is trending to
poly-acrylic which is water borne.
The brush marks will disappear and
doesn’t turn light wood yellow over time.
Poly-acrylic will raise grain a
little so what Steve does, after sanding to 220, he will spray some
water over the pieces, let dry overnight then redo the sanding with
220.
To get a “preview” of what the pieces
will look like when finished, Steve will spray mineral spirits over
them.
Some pieces may need staining or
re-sanding, or even replacing with another piece.
Steve prefers to stay with the
natural color of the wood but sometimes will resort to dyes or
stains to achieve the effect that he wants.
Before gluing Steve suggest doing a “dry”
run and just letting it sit around for a while.
Sometimes extra sets of eyes can
come up with some good artistic “tweaking” suggestions.
For the assembly process Steve uses ¼
inch hardboard for backing, the kind where both sides are tempered
(smooth), is preferred, but is difficult to find.
Steve spoke on the sequence of
applying the pieces and how to use glue judiciously.
Steve
collects sawdust and stores them in plastic bags.
There are
times when he may need to fill gaps with a mixture of
cyanoacrylate (CA)
glue and matching sawdust.