Sulfur as an inlay?

[flintriflesmith]

We know there was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when cabinetmakers cut decorative designs as grooves in wood and filled them by pouring in molten sulfur. The wood was slightly undercut --- sort of like the idea of a poured pewter inlay or nose piece. In furniture it provided a quick and fairly cheap inlay that contrasted nicely with a dark wood.

Somewhere back among my nearly dead brain cells I seem to remember a rifle where this was also done. Did I just dream this or is there an original out there somewhere with sulfur inlay?

Gary

[HISTD]

The local gunshop had a no name percussion in bad condition several years ago which may have had the remains of such an inlay. This rifle was so beat up(as is common in Kansas due to almost everything making a long hard trip), that about all that was left was what looked like yellow putty in an inlay recess.  At the time I thought that is what it was, but I remember thinking that it looked like sufur.

[Stan]

Gary I also have wondered about sulfur inlays & vaguely remember a rifle years ago that may have had such an inlay. I would expect it to turn up in Berks co. because of all the cabinet makers who used it in their furniture. However I gave Bruce Moyer a call & ran it by him & he told me that there was a Jacob George incised carved rifle at the Reading display that appeared to have sulfur filling the carving. He said the rifle was pictured in the book on Berks Co. rifles. It is supposed to be at the Kutztown historical society. Worth checking out. Stan

[black ed]

Any information on that rifle would interest me. I am doing a walnut wedding chest that will have sulfur inlays. I have the temp needed for the sulfur and the profile needed for the inlay cut  but the depth verses width is in the experimental stage. If there's interest in this type of inlays I'll take photos of the proses
Ed

[mbriggs]

In the late 18th and early 19th Century there was a furniture maker who lived and worked near the Southern Alamance County community called Snow Camp, North Carolina that made a group of furniture with Sulfer Putty Inlay.  There are a couple dozen pieces that have survived.  I recently purchase a Blanket Chest from this group. (I will try to post some photos of it).

There is a High Chest from this group that is now at M.E.S.D.A. (The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) in Old Salem.  It was made for George Foust and his wife Barbara Foust in 1796 and has their initials and the date inlaid on the chest.

The Allen House at Alamance Battlefield in Alamance County has a Blanket chest from this group. It has the intials E T inlaid on it.

Michael Briggs

[Fullstock longrifle]

This is an interesting topic, and I have to admit that I had never heard of using sulfur as an inlay before.  What does it look like, pewter? Does anybody have some close up pictures of a sulfur inlay, I would like to see what one looks like.  I had a York County rifle several years ago that had an odd star inlay in the cheek piece.  It wasn't made of the usual Silver and I thought it might have been made from pewter, but now I'm not sure.

You learn something new every day!

Frank

[black ed]

It looks alot like to beeswax. The sulfur actually expands when it goes from the liquid state to the solid state. The over burben can be scraped even to the finished surface of the wood.
Ed