Ebonizing Project

Hi all,
I have made the sides, lid and base for the box that I am going to ebonize, but before I put on the ebonizing solution I wanted to do the scroll saw work on the lid.

I did the design for the inlay which can be seen below.

I think I must have got carried away because it was only when I finished did I realise that I'd made it very fine. Doing the inlay work of filling the leaves, stems and flowers won't be too difficult, but I'm going to have to be very patient when cutting it out on the scroll saw.

In fact, I hit my first snag before I could get started. Cutting the design out will require very fine blades and I didn't have any. Scroll saw blades come in a range of sizes from 2/0, which is 0.010 inches thick, to a size 12r, which is 0.024 inches thick. If you can't get your head around those numbers think in terms of drill sizes. A pilot hole of one 32nd of an inch is all that is needed to pass the smallest blade through.

Anyway, I've been using a lot of medium sized blades lately and hadn't thought about getting some new small blades. Whilst we are talking about blades, there are several different makes to choose from. I use Olson blades mainly because they are easy to order  from here they also have a great range of pyrography blanks, plans, rotary tools and lots of other stuff associated with small woodworking projects.

Delivery is usually pretty good, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the blades will be here tomorrow and I can then get on with the ebonizing project. Mean while I'm going to make a start on another project which will involve some pyrography work