Had a surprisingly warm and dry day today, and the Titebond Hide Glue has cured really nicely. Still leaving the guitar wrapped in tubing, but was able to make a bit of progress on the neck by removing the frets. These frets are probably the original frets from the original build. I'm sure you all know this already, but I noticed the inconsistent position of the fret barbs. They aren't built into the wire but made by pounding the tang with a screw driver. Old school stuff...
Used a soldering iron to heat the frets and they came out really clean. Oddly enough, this guitar's fingerboard was completely flat with no radius at all. Never heard of such a thing on an archtop. A nut end view of the fret board reveals an interesting laminated construction. A very thin (10th of a millimeter) rosewood veneer on top (hence no radius!) of a 1.5mm maple laminated with another 2mm layer below. No doubt measures to keep costs down.
Just for fun, thought I'd try to see what a 12" fret board radius would do. Thought there might be a chance of using the maple layer underneath the rosewood veneer. Achieved the 12" radius in the picture above; unfortunately, radiusing down to the maple will cut into the layer under the maple. The maple grain is discolored anyway, so the fret board is going to be swapped with a solid piece of rosewood. Debating whether to stay with the gypsy jazz style fret board marker at the 10th fret or to change to the standard 9th fret position...decisions, decisions! Great fun this is...