Vol 21 | August 29, 2025

In this issue Dave shares a shop update featuring his new assistant, reviews classes through the end of 2025, covers his favorite mechanical pencil for easy visibility on marquetry, discusses advanced sand shading marquetry techniques, and shares history and examples of the work of Charles Andre Boulle from the London, UK museum the Wallace Collection.

There was a long break between the previous two newsletters, but I am trying to get back into the habit of writing these things. And I’ve got some things to talk about, which makes it easier.

First and foremost, I have a new shop assistant: introducing Raven.

Our best girl Natasha died some years ago. She was a mutt, but mostly Golden Retriever/Aussie. I found a breeder who specializes in that mix: Goshen Golden Aussies, in southern Virginia.  We had intended to get a puppy next year but unusual circumstances led Raven back to Goshen as a six-month-old, and we adopted her a couple of weeks ago. She has been great. She is smart and resilient and trains easily, and the dust collector noise doesn’t bother her. She also eats wood chips, not good, and veneer (!!!), not acceptable. I’m working on it. Hopefully by next year she will be calm enough to hang out in the shop with me for a portion of each day.

Class Update – through the end of 2025

I’d like to thank all the folks who have trekked to my shop this year for a class. I love spreading the word on using veneer to decorate objects. 

I only have one more class this year in my shop that has any openings. Double Bevel I has spots on Nov 15-16. 

I intend to have my 2026 class schedule in an early Fall newsletter. If you have any druthers on a class and timing, let me know – 2026 feels a world away.

Here are links to the travelling classes for this year:

• Ted Harlan School of woodworking, Louisville KY – currently in progress
  •   Painting with Wood Aug 22-23 , Intro Double Bevel Aug 24-26.
• Goggleworks, Reading PA: Painting with Wood Intensive, Sept 19-21 – this class is still short of the minimum students we need to hold it, so if you are interested now is the time to sign up!

Wood and Shop, Earlysville VA: Veneering for Furnituremakers – this class has been deferred to 2026, and I will release dates when I have them.

There are more details about the classes on each website. They are similar to the classes in my shop but some are longer. I plan to offer some three-day classes at the shop in 2026 – the third day allows more absorption time for the concepts. 

In this edition of Running with Chisels:

• Tool time: Bohin Mechanical Pencils
• Tech(nique) Topic: Advanced Sand Shading
• Learn from the best: the Wallace Collection

Tool time: Bohin Mechanical Pencils

In the last newsletter I listed many of the tools that I use and like. I listed the Bohin white pencils, which are great. I had bought some other colors of leads, but I hadn’t used them yet so I didn’t include them in the list.  I have since tried them out in classes, and we’ve been pleased with all of them.

The 0.9 mm leads come in white, yellow, pink, and green. All of them show well on darker wood, and the pink and green also show well on lighter woods, so you can use it across pieces without having to switch pencils. The white doesn’t show well against very light woods.

I bought 0.9 mm Pentel Graphgear pencils so that I can see that they are different from a distance.The line isn’t as fine as a 0.5mm lead produces but it’s sufficiently crisp to be a fine pencil line for veneer, and I can see it.

They are not inexpensive but I am happy to add them to my arsenal. 

Tech Topic: Advanced Sand Shading

Sometimes you want to sand shade an edge or two. Dipping the piece into the sand works well and is easy. Sculpting the sand can refine the shading to have a non-straight line. 

When you want to sand shade the middle of a piece, or any portion other than a whole edge, other techniques are required. I have seen a spoon used to pour sand onto pieces of veneer, shading a rounded area. When I tried it myself though, I had limited success.

With my 1000W hotplate, I expect to wait about 30 minutes for the sand to be hot enough. In a recent class, interior shading was desired, but I was skeptical. I turned on the hot plate, then we got caught up in something else, and the sand had been heating for 90 minutes. Lo and behold, we used an icing spoon (picture A) to funnel the sand to the desired spot, and after three pours darkness began! The hotter sand from the extended warming time was enough to get the job done. 

In RWC 20 there is a high-powered (1500W) hotplate listed. It is a scorcher*******, and half an hour was enough to sand shade petal interiors quickly. A propane stove should also work.

******* PS: Since I wrote that, we held the class at Ted Harlan in Louisville. We were using this hotplate and left it on for a couple of hours. One of the knobs melted. That is not OK. The whole top of the hotplate was plastic melting hot. DO NOT BUY THIS HOTPLATE. Please. I have it still linked so you know exactly which one I am talking about, so you can NOT BUY IT.*******

This tulip has great depth – a combination of the deep incised cuts (filled with walnut dust) and the interior sand shading.

I encourage you to experiment with how to expose the veneer to the sand. I also strongly encourage you to only have the hotplate powered when you are in your shop. I have a sign on my workshop door which tells me that the hotplate is on, to remind me to not leave it running when I’m not there. 

History of Marquetry: Painting with Wood, Packet Cutting, and Boulle Work

Marquetry takes both skill and time. Packet cutting is one of the approaches to making pictures more quickly and accurately that also generates multiples – the same picture, but in different color combinations. A stack of veneers is tightly taped together, then the saw is used to cut vertically through the packet. The pieces are interchanged and the pattern emerges.  Ta da!

I call this technique Painting with Wood to make the concept clearer to those without a marquetry background. 

This technique has been used since the early 1500’s using a hand scroll saw. The French invented the Chevalet (maybe 1750?) to speed this up, and most folks today would use an electric scroll saw.

The technique works with any flat material, so horn, plastic, brass, pewter, tortoiseshell and other materials have been used. If you can make a flat sheet out of it and cut it with a scroll saw blade, you can put it in a packet.

Charles Andre Boulle was an Ebeniste for Louis XIV. He initially made floral marquetry in the Dutch style, but he is most famous for his ebony/brass/pewter/tortoise shell masterpieces made in the late 1600’s, to ~ 1715. His work was extraordinary. There are pictures in the Wallace Collection article of a few of the hundreds of pieces from his shop. He had over 50 employees at his death, and his children continued the business. Unfortunately, there was a fire at some point and most of the original drawings and records were lost, so many pieces are attributions because there isn’t proof that they were made by him. 

In packet cutting there are generally some color combinations which are more attractive than others. In Boulle work the most expensive piece had the most brass, and was called the Premier Partie, or the first part. The ebony or tortoiseshell foreground, brass background was the Deuxieme (second) Partie. The genius in this efficiency was that pieces would be sold to different clientele. If the King got the Premier Partie, a Nobleman might get the Deuxieme. If a noble got the Premier, and businessman or minor noble could buy the Deuxieme. Since the classes didn’t mix, no one person would likely see both pieces, and the ebeniste could maximize their income with the same time expenditure cutting the packet.  In the Wallace Collection, both copies of a piece are side by side. I wonder how long it took to bring them together?

Learning from the Best: Furniture from the Wallace Collection, London UK.

The Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection
Hertford House,
Manchester Square,
London W1U 3BN 

In most cities, this would be a major attraction. In London, it’s just another private museum. 

This museum is free to enter but there are restrictions on how many people can be there at any time, so reservations are timed. The “House” is small palace in the middle of London, filled with the collections of two generations of 19^th century Englishmen who lived in Paris. The art, both fine and decorative, is first rate. They also bought two very fine armor collections from fellow collectors, which are an odd addition to the furnishings. 

There were people there to study the art and the silver and the ceramics and carpets, but the furniture is front and center. Charles Andre Boulle was clearly a favorite – there were pieces by his shop in nearly every room. 

 Picture 1 is a classic Boule piece. Lots of brass as the background, delicate cutting, heavy ormulu. The “veneering” on the concave leg surface if extraordinary – ebony doesn’t bend. Maybe that is tortoiseshell. The top was less to my taste – a pictorial scene. 

Pictures 2-5 are a clock case, so maybe 14” tall, 9” wide, 6” deep. The cutting is a tour de force. This piece is small enough I might try it, to see how woeful the results would be. If you try this, soft brass is a good choice, and you will still break a lot of blades. Picture 5 shows the fine engraving that suggests depth, similar to sand shading. 

Pictures 6 and 7 are a large case piece with a clock on it – rare and exotic and very expensive in the 17^th century.

Pictures 8 and 9 are a desk in the Louis XV style. Notice the Wedgwood set into the side – the Royal furniture had logos on them, advertising the King. These were removed during the Revolution and this plaque was inserted to cover the damage, or replace some earlier image that had been installed. 

Pictures 10-13 are earlier Boulle work, in the Dutch style. This marquetry is amazing considering how old it is. 

Pictures 14-15 are a display cabinet from the 1850’s. The inlays are ivory into ebony. 

Picture 16 is a side view of a Riesner cabinet, so 1770-90. The brass-work is superb. 

French furniture often had Sevres porcelain decorations, sometimes covering the whole piece. Picture 17 is calmer and more refined than most. The veneer is stunning.

Pictures 18 and 19 are Premiere and Deuxieme partie chests that I mentioned earlier.