Inlays before radiusing the fb or after?

[viento]

Should I make inlays before radiusing the fingerboard or better afterwards?

[charles Tauber]

Depends on the inlay size, material and complexity and on the fingerboard radius. If the inlay is small enough - such as a dot - it doesn't matter. It the radius is "significant", if you inlay while flat and then radius, you'll thin the inlay material. That can matter, particularly on abalone shell where the color often dissipates the further into the thickness you go.

Also, depending upon how you radius your fingerboard, it can be easier to radius first, then inlay. For example, if you use a hand plane to radius the fingerboard, the plane blade won't play nicely with hard - such as shell - inlay materials.

[viento]

Thanks for your answer!
I will insert only small pieces of abalone as markings of the frets e.g. 3rd, 5th, 12th etc... so I could do that before radiusing...but I´ll have to have a look at their thickness before.

[mirwa]

I radius all my fingerboards first, then i inlay and follow up shape with a file or more sandpaper

Steve

[redir]

I've never tried after radius but for the inlay that goes closer at the edge like for example the 12th fret double inlay I always make them go a hair below the the surface. I guess it kind of makes sense to do it afterwards though.

[viento]

Thanks for sharing your experiences!
The abalone pieces I use are pretty thin at 1.3mm to 1.5mm (=0.05"-0.06").
Therefore I only set them in after grinding the radius.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by viento

Thanks for sharing your experiences!
The abalone pieces I use are pretty thin at 1.3mm to 1.5mm (=0.05"-0.06").
Therefore I only set them in after grinding the radius.

No matter what the thickness you have to be careful with the amount of shell that you sand off. The nature of the shell will determine how much you can remove in the leveling process. Shell is composed of two different layers normally, with the nacre layer being relatively thin to the bulk of the shell thickness which is calcium carbonate. The thin nacre layer is where the iridescence of the shell resides,and you will actually expose a "witness line" between the layers if you sand too far.

I learned this a long time ago when I did my first inlay and exposed the calcium layer beneath the nacre when I sanded a fret board radius across a wide inlay at the 12th fret.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

[Quickstep192]

Originally Posted by mirwa

I radius all my fingerboards first, then i inlay and follow up shape with a file or more sandpaper

Steve

Steve,

Can you describe how you rout the recess for the inlay on a radiused board?

[mirwa]

Cnc for complicated shapes, old school chisel for simple stuff

Steve

[viento]

I´ve radiused the fb and routed the cutouts for the inlays.
What bothers me still are the surrounding slight gaps of the inlays I routed with my Dremel.
On my fingerboard of white ebony it´s somewhat difficult to get the right color matching the different woodspots.
I´m going to sand pale as well as dark colored wood with fine grain paper, shove it into the gaps
and let drops of super glue fix it. Hope that works.

I´d love to have CNC...