Sanding Dust in Inlay

Al Breed replies: I’ve always put the veneers and bandings down with hide glue, which I suspect fills the grain to a certain extent, because I don’t recall having a lot of color pollution. The other alternative might be to scrape then seal with shellac so that you’re sanding the finish instead of the wood surface.

Guy Senneville replies: Very simply, Don’t! The inlay work should be done after the piece has been final sanded and ready for finish. I prefer to finish right off the plane rather than sand. If you have inlayed properly everything should be pretty close to level. The scraper would be the proper tool to use next because the inlay will probably have grain going in many different directions. This would bring your inlay to the exact same level as the surrounding piece.