Sulfur inlay

Sulfur inlay is a rarely used technique for decorative surface inlay in wooden cabinetmaking.

Liquid sulfur

The technique originates in the 18th century, but was only used for a short period. Between 1765 and around 1820, German immigrant cabinetmakers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, used it to decorate the surface of chests.[1] The Deitrich chest of 1783 is now in the Smithsonian.[2]

Commercial reproducers of such chests may rarely re-create this inlay technique as well.[3]

Technique

The inlay technique is simple. A small groove is carved into the surface of the wood, then molten sulfur is poured into the groove. Once cooled and hard, the surface may easily be scraped flush.[4]

Sulfur is used as it has a low melting point, easily achieved on a hotplate. This also reduces the risk of charring the wood with a hotter liquid inlay material. On cooling, sulfur also expands slightly, locking it into place.

The colour of the sulfur inlay is a pale yellow or off-white. Overheating the sulfur causes it to darken to brown, and also produces noxious fumes and a risk of fire.

Antiquarians unfamiliar with sulfur inlay have mistaken old examples for varieties of beeswax or white lead.[2]

  • Pewter may be inlaid by a similar process, albeit rather hotter, giving a silvery metallic inlay. Wood's metal has also been used as a low-temperature alternative.
  • Sulfur has also been used as a historical hot-melt glue for setting ironwork into stone, or for bonding stone together.[5]
  • Niello uses the darkening effect of sulfur compounds on silver.

References
  1. Mass, Jennifer L; Anderson, Mark J (2003). "Pennsylvania German sulfur-inlaid furniture: characterization, reproduction, and ageing phenomena of the inlays". Measurement Science and Technology. 14 (9): 1598. doi:10.1088/0957-0233/14/9/311. ISSN 0957-0233.
  2. Schleining, Lon (2003). Treasure Chests: The Legacy of Extraordinary Boxes. Taunton Press. ISBN 1-56158-651-X.
  3. "Commercial chest maker, recreating the technique".
  4. "Recreating sulfur inlay techniques". 2003.
  5. "Slate box, glued with sulfur". 2006.

The Worst Way to Inlay, a 2005 replication of the technique by Theodore Gray


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