Sulfur inlay

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

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]

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.

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

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