Keith Turner contacted me after my last post, and made me reconsider a potential solution I’d dismissed earlier; dividing the top marquetry into three parts. The problem, as you recall, is that the dimensions of the complete table top marquetry are beyond the capabilities of the saws to which I have access. The issue with dividing the marquetry into sections is that there really are no convenient division lines. Unless, we employ a trick!

The above image shows the left side of the top marquetry. Notice how the leaves near the top-center of the photo don’t quite reach the border? A little more difficult to detect is that the end of the ribbon just peaking out from the scale (near the 14 1/2 inch mark) is also just shy of the lower border. These appear to be the most likely dividing points. If I used any of the traditional marquetry saw methods, however, I’d be forced to cut across the grain which would leave a visible discontinuity. But, what if those background sections weren’t present?

A close examination of the drawing shows that these extreme sections occur in the outwardly curved portions between the corner, and center border shells. A straightforward method for constructing the field might be to edge join veneer of the appropriate species to create a rectangle large enough to contain the desired shape when finished. Then, trim it to this shape. What if we took a different approach and cut lengthwise (that is, with the grain) between these shells (red line in the photo below)? This would leave us with terminal points (blue arrows) which we could use to create three distinct sections!

Now, each of the three sections is within the throat depths of an existing saw, and the missing field pieces can be rejoined once the marquetry has been completed! This should be completely “invisible” if the background veneer is chosen carefully.