Making an Eight Sided Serving Tray

P. Michael Henderson

 

In preparing to do the banding, we'll cut the holly and bloodwood using the filleti guide.  I cut eight strips of holly, each 1/16" wide and four strips of bloodwood 1/4" wide.

To lay in the banding, start by cleaning off the workspace very well.  I blow it off with compressed air and usually use some packing tape to pick up any trash left.  Lay the field veneer on the workspace, show side up.

Then put 1" blue tape around the edge of the field, attached to the veneer by about 1/8".

Then turn the whole package upside down.  You'll use the blue tape to hold the banding while you lay it.  Start with the holly.  I use my fingernail to pull the holly against the walnut burl while I push it down on the tape.

Then lay in the bloodwood.

And finally, another strip of holly.

Now we need to miter the banding.  I want the cut to be exactly aligned with the seams in the field.  To make sure I'm aligned, I'll take my straight edge and lay it exactly on a seam.

Then take a good sharp chisel and place it against the straight edge and over the banding.  Do not let the chisel overlap the walnut burl. 

Use a mallet and give the chisel one good sharp rap, sufficient to cut through all the banding.  This will give you a nice miter joint, aligned with the existing seams.

Do all eight miters.  This is what your veneer will look like after cutting the miters.

Now prepare the veneer for the border.  I need eight pieces.  I drew the border as 1 1/2" but I'm going to add about 1/8" to the width.  I took four pieces of veneer and taped them together.  I sanded the edge so it'd be straight and then I cut at the marks I made (a bit larger than 1 1/2").

I then sanded the edge on the remaining veneer and cut another set of strips a bit larger than 1 1/2" - but exactly the same size as the first pieces.

Lay in the walnut border against the banding.  Note how I overlapped the border. If you're right handed, this overlap works best because when you cut, the top piece falls away and is not trapped under the straight edge.  If you're left handed, reverse the overlap.

I want to miter these pieces just like the banding - exactly along the line of the seams in the walnut burl.  Like before, I lay my straight edge on a seam of the burl.

I can't use a chisel on this because it's too wide so I'll cut it with a knife.  You can see that the top piece will fall away when I cut through it, allowing me to cut the lower piece without interference.  I'm right handed but I'm holding the knife in my left hand - because the camera is in my right hand.  I actually made this cut with my right hand.

This is what the miter should look like.

Tape the joint with blue tape after cutting.  Then cut all the other miters and tape them, also.  Here's where we are now.

Then put blue tape over the banding.

Next, turn the veneer over, so that the show face is up, and remove the blue tape from that side.

Then put veneer tape over the miter joints and the banding.

Put the veneer in press while the veneer tape dries.  When the tape is good and dry, take it out of press and remove the blue tape from the glue face.

And this is what the glue face looks like.  This piece of veneer is now finished and ready to glue up.

 

The tutorial continues here.