Hi Ted,

Although I didn't get to ask you about your boats at R2K, I did get a bit of drool on them! You did a very fine job of routing the recesses--I figured you used an X-Acto or something to get the close match you did.

You're not only the Point Man, you're the Steady Hand Man, too!!

The purpleheart provided an excellent contrast to the Okoume. I'll bet rosewood, walnut, padauk, or maple would look great too. I don't think red cedar, mahogany, or redwood would look as good since they wouldn't provide that great contrast which helps the design stand out.

Shawn

: Gary,

: After practicing with scraps, I was able to get the surface of the veneer
: (25/000" thickness) flush enough to not feel any height difference
: with my hand. Using purple heart veneer, a very dense and hard wood, I
: would error on the side of making the cut a little too deep, not shallow.
: The last thing I want is a feathered edge on the veneer and, from a
: mechanical side, it's much easier to sand the surrounding surface down to
: the level of this hard veneer. Your choice of veneer type and thickness
: may dictate your approach. The closer you get to flush surfaces, the
: easier the rest of processes will be.

: The routing tool I used was a Dremel Moto-tool with a matching router base.
: This worked very well. A large router might be a bit large to use freehand
: for small cuts.

: My first attempt at gluing the veneer was a failure and I ended up routing
: out the mess. Using a lot of steel weights, the veneer was not pressed
: tight enough. I ended up using c-clamps which worked fine.

: Thanks for your and everyone else's compliments. It's rewarding to receive
: feedback on my little bit of boat personalization.