Help A New Guy?

[ponyone]

hey everyone, I found this site via another guitar forum (guitartricks.com) and thought I'd ask your help...

I've always admired guitars themselves as much as the music they create via their players, and i've finally decided to embark on my own quest to make my own. I have little woodworking experience; my dad is really into it, and has all the tools, but, my family is on the other side of the continent and my dad is on the other side of the world right now, so i'm pretty much on my own. I figured I'd try inlay first since i can do it to one of the guitars I have now and it'll build experience towards building one from scratch.

i bought a dremel and pretty much everything else they recommend for doing inlays in the book "Pearl Inlay" by James Patterson but thus far am basically flying blind. for starters i'm practicing on a piece of walnut with a 3x5 block of paua and i'm really just having a hard time cutting straight with the jewelry saw.

ultimately i'd like to inlay some paua blocks into a Kramer i have to spruce it up a bit, but, i want to be more confident about it first.

so i guess my questions would be... what can i do to saw better in a straight line? (i'm a lifelong artist and can freehand a dead straight line down a piece of 8x11 but sawing is newish to me) and when i go to inlay onto my kramer, how should i go about the dots in there now; should i just route them like i would do to the wood or is there something i should do different?

[westhemann]

hey ponyone i can't help you with the inlay advice...but please be more descriptive in your topic title.

i took care of this one for you.

the reason being that some of the older members(like me)skip over most topics that only say "help" or something similar without a real description.

in this case,there are only a few guys who are really into inlaying,and i think all of them that are frequently here are older members,and may not ever read your topic if it does not say "inlay" in it

LGM and Clavin are the guys who can probably give you the most help

[Clavin]

1) Make sure your patterned-out line is as thin as possible.

2) Use a thicker (size-1) blade. It will not flex as much. Make sure your saw and blade are kept at 90 degrees.

3) Cut on the downstroke, holding the saw almost loosely, don't grip it tight. Hold it with your fingertips almost. Let the blade make the cut, don't force it.

4) Cut as much as possible. It takes practise, that's all.

5) Above all go slow, Take your time. There is no rushing in hand cut inlay.

Best of luck.

Craig Lavin

www.handcraftinlay.com

[ponyone]

thanks guys... next time i'll be more descriptive in my title. i'll be sure to be extra slow and tonight i'll put on a thicker blade.