Cutting Frets Additional Tooling

Woodenspoke

- 1.3k
Loveland Colorado
Interests:I have been a woodworker and luthier for over 35 years professionally and as a hobbyist. I worked on 48th street in NYC in the late 70's with the likes of Ken Parker the founder of Parker Guitars. My luthier interests are only a small portion of my woodworking skills. I have run production shops (not in the luthier field) and designed production tools for small companies in need. I have also worked in the business machine field as well as in IT (Computer support) for several Major publishing companies. I have well equipped shop able to produce anything from fine furniture to production runs of instruments. I am moving to metal work to round off my skill set as a builder of guitars and to learn tooling production as evident by the fret bender I sell on eBay (now sold by LMI not available on ebay). I have started selling guitar parts only because I believe the guitar industry is already saturated with enough builders. I hope to someday move from eBay to a more suitable web prescience and offer the same products at a more reasonable price point. George Brown Pennington Luthier Supply PLS

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Posted February 27, 2009

I wanted to just mention the use of a cable cutter to cut frets. I purchased the Harbor Freight version $5 on sale.

As I sell frets from rolls I found the end nippers just a bit too much work just to size lengths of wire. I also found this tool gives me a very clean cut even with the double bevel. In fact the cut is better than any of my nippers. You cant cut the ends of frets after fretting but it is possible to rough size frets with this tool.

Anyway for $5 and a good sharpening of the bevel I found these cutters useful at least for rough fret work. May also save your good nippers for the final fret work and your hands. This heavy duty tool will outlast your nippers. I'd keep them away from cutting cable if you do use them for cutting frets. LOL