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