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I took the oak and the poplar, and sanded them both with 120, 150, and 220 sand paper). Then I applied conditioner to the oak, and then stained it with a water based "espresso" stain.

I think the contrast between the white and the black wood is obvious and the wood grain looks great.

Stain looks good!

I took the board to my table saw and cut it up. Laid in a checker pattern, the pieces fit pretty cleanly together.

One difference between working with 1/4" boards, as I am here, and 1/2" board as I did in the past, is that the glue doesn't feel very strong. Maybe I should give it a backing...

Next, thinking about the sides of the box.

There is nothing like gluing together a bunch of finely cut squares together to demonstrate they are not, in fact, squares, but a collection of 1mm-off irregular rectangles.

It never ceases to amaze me how round saw blades can make such straight, regular shapes. Geometry!

I don't have a lathe, but I do have a table saw, so I'm starting to experiment with ideas for #chess pieces.

These are made out of a 1" ash dowel.

learning a bit more about wire inlay. The idea is that I'll have inlay around the board.

superglue helps!

Pawn and Bishop experiments. I'm growing more and more excited that I'll be able to make something interesting!

I think I need a simpler joint. Tried making a jig, it ended up being too complicated.

OK, starting to make more standardized pieces. I took a pawn experiment I liked and measured the dimensions. Now I'm recreating the pieces.

One challenge: I can't figure out the exact height of the saw blade, so I'm measuring by 1/3rd cranks on the elevation wheel. The base is 0 cranks (no cut), the neck is 5/6, 4/6, and 3/6 cranks, and the "head" is 1/6 cranks.

practicing box joints. Much simpler than finger joints!

Boards and margins finished. Having a table saw makes for better joints.

Margins finished (again) for my chess board. I made them in poplar because I think the carving work I want to do will be easier in soft wood.

Then, I cut the 2" sides of the box into 1" slices. Added bevels.

I am stretching my knowledge here, for sure.

For a hot minute I thought I'd decorate the margins with an illustrative scene with wire inlay! Big ambitions to do a series of #LordOfTheRings illustrations with copper inlay.

I've landed on much a simpler geometric pattern. More doable.

@solarpunkgnome it is darn hard!

@derek @solarpunkgnome
You only need a steady hand and a lot of patience :-)

This is the outside of a case for a flute.
Edit: I've done some metal inlays but have no pictures. I usually give everything away straight away. And don't take fotos
#wood #inlay

@bavarianunicorn @solarpunkgnome nice