Thanks Bryan,

This being my first boat I wasn't very sure how I was going to do this. I tried stripping the fore deck and cutting out the pattern, this worked ok but I couldn't strip to such a complicated pattern. Next I took the pattern off and stripped the deck, planning to cut out and drop the stripped pattern in. I decided this was going to be worse than stripping to the pattern.

Ultimately, after spending about a week getting up the nerve, I made a paper pattern, taped it to the deck, and cut it out in a couple areas at a time. These areas were then filled in with strips ranging from 1/8" to 3/16" wide and 1/4" thick. Each little strip was cut and fit one at a time, glued and forced in place with wedges and tape. I cut two areas so I could fit one piece while the other was setting up, by the end of the inlay I was actually fitting pieces faster than the glue would set. A few pieces required really thin strips, like the outline on the beak, and some needed a little steam to bend that tight (I stuck the tiny strip in the end of wifey's tea kettle). All in all about two days work while on winter lay off.

If I were to do it again, any line that appears to flow under another would be stripped first, then cut through it to do the area that appears to overlap. That way the strips would align better, especially the outline of the pattern. This was really only a problem in one spot, and I don't even notice it, much :^)

Tom