EcrosTechWiki | Woodworking / Recipe for Coaster Resulting from Bookmatching Experiment

Ingredients (Makes One Coaster)

One piece of Bolivian rosewood, ¼" thick by a little over 3½" long by about 1¾" wide after cutting both long edges to be straight and parallel.
One piece of soft or curly maple, about 3/32" thick by a little over 3½" long by about 1/8" wide, edges straight and parallel.
3/16" thick MDF sheet.
Four pieces of cherry, ¼" by ¼" and a little over 4" long (for edge band).
General Finishes Enduro-Var urethane (or similar) to finish.
1/16" thick pressure sensitive cork sheet (or dots, or similar) for underside.

Instructions

Find a piece of Bolivian rosewood with a grain pattern that will look interesting when bookmatched. You don't want a straight pattern; some kind of swirl or wave is needed. Resaw it, as evenly as possible, into two pieces each about 1/16" thick. This may be difficult. I got what I needed by trying to resaw a piece 3" wide, making a mess of it and rescuing what I could. Look at the result and figure out which sides you want to match and show on the coaster surface (it may not be the side you just sawed).
Glue the rosewood pieces to the narrow maple strip to make a thin "core" sheet a little over 3½" square. It will probably be necessary to hold everything firmly down during the glue up. The side that will show should be down so that on that side the strips are as level with each other as it possible.
On the side that won't show, if the maple is higher than the rosewood, shave it down with a chisel and / or sand it flat. If it is lower, nothing needs to be done.
Glue the side that won't show to the 3/16" thick MDF. If there are voids, fill them first with glue and sawdust and sand if necessary.
Flatten the side that will show, for example with a drum sander. You can leave slight deviations from flat because this will have to be repeated after the edge band is glued on. Right now, you're preparing for the next glue-up.
Trim the core to 3½" square, making sure that the maple strip is centered.
Miter the edge band strips to fit around the core. Glue them in place. Again, the side that will show should be down so that on that side the edge band is as level as possible with the core.
Re-flatten the side that will show and sand to the final finish. Turn the coaster over and flatten the MDF side as well, ending up with a finish appropriate to the bottom.
Apply eurethane. Apply 1/16" cork sheet to the bottom, leaving a margin of about 1/8" all the way around.