learning to do marquetry and steaming

This is Craig Stevens teaching us to do marquetry. He makes his own veneer in sheets of wood that he cuts to 5/64th of an inch. He readily admits he can't really see that number or line on the ruler, but nonetheless he always cuts his veneers to that thickness.

His saw is a jeweler's saw, size 2. He also admits he can't see the teeth on this blade, but he can feel them so he knows which way to use it.

So you draw a picture on the background piece of wood and tape the inside colored piece of wood under it. Then at an 8 degree angle, you cut both the background and the inside and it makes a double bevel so the inside piece will fit snugly into the background piece and then be trapped once the veneer is glued to whatever board the body of the piece will be.


The little stand is called a donkey and adjusts to 8 degrees or flat. Through years of trial and error and then perfection, he found this to be the perfect angle for his veneer of 5/64ths.

Close up of the wood - you can see just a little of the figure of a leaf in the photo.

More of the leaf - you can just see on either side of the dark line where some mahogany has been inlaid.