This starts the next section of the catalogue Which is labeled Art Moderne. The wood inlay bands in this section are much more distinctive, and to me interesting, and I would love to see these used on some pieces of furniture. The section page is nice in itself and uses a great Art Deco font. There are numerous bands here that would be extremely challenging to make with a reasonable degree of precision as they contain multiple curved surfaces.

I Will pick out a number of bands that I like but it is best to look through the full pages as there is lots to choose from that would look nice incorporated into a piece.
This is a simple but effective band made of small checkerboard squares and alternating layers of long strips. The use of the same color (ebony in this case) in the checkerboard and one of the long strips makes it more dynamic.

This is a great band with diamonds and contrasting ovals. The construction could be simplified a little by substituting a tall diamond for the oval.

All I can say is go ahead and make this in an afternoon. Notice also the subtle and asymmetrical top and bottom layers to this band.
Please select for Page 10.

On Page 11 the amazing array of inlay bands continues. This looks challenging with the long shallow curves. my first impression is African?

I think this band would look great on a box or a small modern table top or apron.

This elegant band using Macassar ebony Is impressive. If the “white” diagonal lines were silver or pewter it would certainly kick things up an notch.

I am trying to imagine this in use but it is still interesting to think of the construction of this band using face grain in the final cutting to make the bands.
Please select for Page 11.

Mostly Feathers

The numerous bands on Pages 8 and 9 are mostly of the feather design some simple and others much more complex with many elements. Almost all have the internal elements cut at 45 degrees and are put together as a series of parallelograms. There is a very nice range of different woods and colours used in this series.

I like the one at the top of this page. I would love to see an actual example of this band but it looks like the longer Blue-green element is made up of a series of glued together strips using a dark glue to add contrasting fine dark lines like in a feather. The reason I say this is that the lithographs seem to be made with great purpose and there are similar bands that lack these fine lines.

There are some nice bands on these pages that vary from the feather pattern. In general these are not up there with my favorite bands.

Ribbon

View Page 8.

View Page 9.

Enjoy!

Supprisingly Modern

I hope you find these additions to the series on inlay banding by Buffard Frères more and more interesting. Every time I look at them I find bands that are wonderful for their proportions. Most of these bands again involve rectilinear cuts but generate a large number of different patterns that only scratch the surface of what is possible.

Some time back I was working on a project that would utilize the patterns in more than just inlay banding in furniture. I put together a Stetchup drawing of a table that used inlay bands on the top and enlarged bands (parquetry) for the aprons of the table. The patterns for the aprons were taken directly form the bands repeating elements and proportioned to fit the table. I think this is a simple but very effective use of these patterns.

The pages included in this post have some interesting bands with some very fine detail work once you look at them. There are certainly many that would not look out of place on a modern piece of furniture.

View Page 6.

Page 7 is moves on to some nice diamond (and square on point) work.

View Page 7.

How would you construct this one? Enjoy!

The single band below required the construction of an intermediate component that was made from a sandwich of yellow_black_yellow of identical thickness then cut on a diagonal to form a parallelogram. And this is alternated with a black (ebony) parallelogram.

View Page 4.

Page 5 is mostly composed of bands with square or rectangular repeating internal components bounded top and bottom by thin bands of contrasting wood. There are some nice patterns on this page and one can easily think of a vary large number of possible variations on this theme using simple perpendicular cuts in the construction of the internal components.

View Page 5.

The above band is one of my favorites on Page 5. It is not complex but has pleasant proportions and a Southwest feel to me.

Here are links to the first three pages.

1. Page 1
2. Page 2
3. Page 3

The 1926 Buffard Frères banding catalogue was likely distributed widely throughout Europe to production furniture shops and guilds. The extent of the wood banding offered was prodigious in both diversity and quantity. To give you an idea of the level of production of inlay banding the prices quoted in the catalogue are for quantities of 100m (328 feet)! I have one of the original Buffard Frères bands and the lengths they came in were approximately 1m.

The Catalogue included a title page, a covering letter describing the contents and the terms of sale and a inserted price list. I have included photos of these below. Just click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image.

Title Page and Covering Letter

Price List

Lithographed First Page

I became interested in the brothers Buffard and their amazing production of inlay banding while attending a workshop given by Garrett Hack at the The Inside Passage School of Woodworking on the Sunshine Coast of British columbia. The workshop focused on detailing work and the fine touches for which Garrett Hack’s work is known. We spent one afternoon discussing inlay banding and making our own designs.

As background, the firm of Buffard Frères of Paris made over 8000 styles of inlay banding for cabinetmakers for more than a century. The company went through bankruptcy in the 1930s. “In 1973, the remaining members of the Buffard family scrapped the special machinery used to make the banding so that it would not fall into the hands of imitators.” (Lee Valley Website). It would be difficult to reproduce many of these bands with today’s materials and methods.

In following up on this topic I tried to learn more about the Buffard Frères. I managed to find at an Antwerp Antiquariat a mint 1926 trade catalogue by Buffard Frères printed not long before their bankruptcy. The things you find on the internet. This Art-Deco catalogue has spectacular colour lithographs of hundreds of bands of their 1920’s offerings. For added historical interest it came with the original covering letter and price list (marked with a 20% discount!). Besides its inherent aesthetic value, I believe this is an interesting reference document and as such should be preserved, shared and promoted.

What I plan on doing in followup posts on this subject is provide photos of the lithograph pages in sufficient resolution to allow woodworkers to reproduce the patterns. Some of these patterns are quite complicated and would be very difficult to make without specialty equipment.

Sketchup of design.

I chose a piece of cocobolo as I thought the rich browns and reds would go with the brass nicely. Here are the basic parts early in the process.

I then cut and shaped the front and back of the infill wood. Bed angle is 55 degrees.

I then made a simple jig to register the parts to drill and countersink holes using the initial 1/8 pilot holes. The small 1/8″ rod sticking up to the right is aiding in registering the drilling as well. Once alignment was made with 1/8″ drill bit I swapped in the drill bit for drilling clearance through the brass of the #10 screw and then swapped in the countersink.

Here is the stage with temporary stainless steel #10 screws. The wood sides are not yet glued in place. Inspection of the plane iron and cap at this point indicate that all seems well aligned and square though I do not know what I would do if it wasn’t other than just start over.

Here is the basic construction just finished finished with the wood sides in place. I could not wait to try and plane some wood. You can see the results of the first cut. A bit thick but still not bad for a hasty trial.

Here is a close up photo of some detailing on the plane.

The more or less finished plane (except for the replacement brass screws). It has a very tight mouth and with a camber on the iron generated with a Veritas Mk.II honing guide. The plane generates shavings around 1/1000. with a loud “SCHREEEEECCCCCCKKK” sound. I am looking forward to using this on an upcoming project. Dimensions 2 1/16W x 6 3/4L x 2 1/4L.

Two Fat Brass Cheeks #1 TFBC1

Here is the very tight banding with a figured maple moon just above the taper of the leg.

Here is the detail of the hand cut dovetails and banding around the drawers. With the fitting of the drawers I followed Charlesworth’s construction advice of having the drawer opening (side doublers) just ever so wider at the back than the front. This has the drawer “tightening” perceptibly just as the drawer is fully open.

The finished table with wenge veneer top.

Some happenings in 1958.

The US Supreme Court rules unanimously that Little Rock, Ark., schools must integrate (Sept. 29).

Khrushchev becomes Premier of Soviet Union as Bulganin resigns (Mar. 27).

Academy Award, Best Picture: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Sam Spiegel, producer (Columbia)

Truman Capote, published Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Nobel Prize in Physiology and medicine. Joshua Lederberg (US), for work with genetic mechanisms; George W. Beadie and Edward L. Tatum (both US), for discovering how genes transmit hereditary characteristics.

What has this got to do with anything? Well Mara(thank you) sent me a set of Lie-Nielsen bevel edge chisels that look and work fantastic. Lie-Nielsen says they came with the backs flattened to 400 grit and it looked the case. It did not take long at all to bring these up to fettle by truly flattening and polishing the backs going through 1200 Japanese waterstone, 4000 waterstone and 8000 waterstone. All of the stones were surfaced every fer minutes with a diamond sharpening plate to keep everything dead flat. Chisels only work properly with a flat back to guide the cutting edge. A couple of swipes at 8000 to put a 35 degree microbevel on these and they are good to go. They have a terrific balance in my hand. I would wish they had less lacquer on the hornbeam wood handles to have a feel closer to the wood, that is being picky but hey I’m 50.

Chisel in action on an open mortise of a chair that I am making from some very nice figured big leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum).