I’ve found myself wanting to get very fine details in my inlays, despite warnings not too. Of course I’m having some fine details chip off while being carved. I was thinking of pre-treating my stock with a coat or two of Danish oil to add some “structure” to the wood in the hopes it will make the wood harder and help the fibers bind together and be less prone to chipping on the finer details.
I have a few scraps of various hard wood that are just taking up space, so I’m going to give it a go. Unless some one has tried this and it’s useless, or has an other suggestion that does work.
Look forward to your replies and I’ll post my results.
Have you tried downcut V bits? I fond that they do an excellent job of preserving details. However, I usually have to run the V Carve a second time to clean up the bottom of the cut.
Most V bits are shear cutting (cutting edge parallel to the shaft). The downcut V bits I use come from Cadence Manufacturing (Cody’s CNC):
He has 30, 60 and 90 deg V bits, the Groovee Jenny series.
There are several products similar that help harden wood but choosing the correct wood for a project is more important. Things like cherry are beautiful but cherry is very brittle. I understand that the astetic is usually more important than the choice of wood but choose woods that are better for carving then others. Also of consideration is if a wood is oily. Things like tropical hardwoods tend to be quite oily and can cause the inlays to not bond permanently.
As @mhotchin suggested the GrooVee Jenny bits work extremely well. I did a Santa’s Mailbox a few years ago in pine which is terrible for carving with a GrooVee Jenny 60 degree bit and it was almost perfect.
