Inlet and inlay issue

[ltdann]

I'm been practicing my wire inlay and inletting technique and am making good progress, but am running into a problem during the finishing part.

I've inlet a brass 8 point star into maple, surrounded it with brass and silver wire inlay.  After swelling with water and an overnight dry, I file nearly flush and then finish with an orbital sander.  Black "dirt" appears in the grain of the wood.  I suspect it's brass dust imbedded into the wood.

I've tried scraping with a scraper instead of the sander, it's better but the black still shows up in the wood grain. Even tried a scotchbrite pad to bring the brass to a polish, but the black comes back ( a little bit).

 I've tried an alcohol wipe, no joy.

Is this something I have to live with?  Is there a better way?

Eventually, the designs will go into a maple stock, finished with tannic acid and ferric nitrate.  Will that cover the black stain or will it react in a negative way with the stain.

I've tried all the wood working tricks I know and am a loss here.  Help

[Ky-Flinter]

Ltdann,

Welcome to ALR.  Get a big pink eraser at the school supply store and give it a try.  

-Ron

[T*O*F]

Flush the area with a spray can of cheap carburetor cleaner.  It will clean it and then evaporate.

[PPatch]

Ky-Flinter is dead on, give it a good going over with a pink eraser. The eraser will remove all that can be removed and the rest should not impact your staining and finishing.

Also, my two cents worth: I'm not so sure about using an orbital sander over wire inlay, could be a bit too rough on it. Back your paper with a block of wood and go at it that way.

dave

[jerrywh]

 Use the pink rubber erasure. Any kind of solvent will only make it harder to get off.  Also I advise to not sand with a orbital sander but use wet and dry  400 grit  3M paper. The cheap papers are not as sharp and will leave slivers in the wood.   

[smart dog]

Hi Dan,
The last thing I would ever use to finish a gun is an electric sander.  You will inevitably round corners that should be crisp and the result will be obvious from quite a distance. Use scrapers to remove deep scratches and then sand if you must using paper backed by a block of wood or a sanding rubber.  Again, I prefer scraping to final sanding.  I also urge you not to sand finer than 320 grit because the fine saw dust will clog the wood grain and potentially affect the penetration of stain.

dave   

[ltdann]

Thanks all.   I was concerned when I left the orbital sander and went to the scraper and still got the black dust, albeit a lot less.

I'd rather make these mistakes on practice pieces and learn from them rather blow it on a really nice stock.

What did they do in the old days, before the pink eraser?

[flehto]

For whatever reason. I've never had this problem. After final sanding and then whiskering, the dust from the silver stars in the pores just disappears. ...Fred

[bama]

Once you swell the wood and it is dry, file the edge of the wire or inlay pretty much flush with the wood then scrape instead of sanding down to the finished level of the wood. Then if you want to touch it up with sand paper use 220 grit or finer and you will not transfer to much metal into the wood. I have never noticed this little bit of metal making to much of a difference in the staining process.

[PPatch]

"What did they do in the old days, before the pink eraser?"

The rubber eraser was invented in 1770 by an English engineer, Edward Nairne. Apparently it was  widely marketed. Before that crustless bread crumbs, pumice and sandstone were used.

I cribbed all of that fine info from a wiki article...

dave

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I like a white artist's eraser better than the pink one...although, come to think of it, many of my favourite things are pink!

[ltdann]

Score one for the pink eraser!  I've been a wood worker all my life and don't know how I didn't come across that little gem.

Thanks all!

[Daryl]

I like a white artist's eraser better than the pink one...although, come to think of it, many of my favourite things are pink!

Maybe it's a Canadian thing as Mike noted?

[Mike Brooks]

I like a white artist's eraser better than the pink one...although, come to think of it, many of my favourite things are pink!

Maybe it's a Canadian thing as Mike noted?

Canadian, no doubt about it. Always white rubbery erasures for me.

[jerrywh]

 Maybe you can find a red and white stripped one. That would be perfect. Or a good compromise would be a red and white rubber scraper.   

[Daryl]

I found the pink erasers left pink skunge on the wood, whereas the white ones don't leave anything except for clean wood.

[jerrywh]

 I'm going to try the white ones next time.  I first discovered the eraser trick from an engraver. As many of you know I do a lot of engraving and at times steel powder or other metal powder gets stuck in the gold and silver when stoning or sanding off precious metal inlays. This is easily remover from the gold with the pink erasures.  Then I found that it worked pretty good on wood as well.  They will leave pink pigment  on the wood but it was never a problem for me. Here is another tip that some of you might want to know. As you know the ink type erasures have a sort of grit in them. They are super for shining up silver or gold inlays and work pretty well for removing the oxide from brass with some elbow grease.