Inlay Materials

[ItWasKnight]

Why are inlays always made out of shells and pearl? Almost every inlay I've ever seen has had that shine to it.. I'd really like to try my hand at making inlays, but I'd want a material that's not shiny.

I saw in this thread that Craig used what looked like a flat green colored gasparite recon stone for the land in his globe, and a nice blue for the water under the marlin.

Are there other, more readily available materials that can be used for making inlays? I found one tutorial on making them out of acrylic but I was hoping maybe there are other options?

[daveq]

You can inlay anything you want - I guess as long as it doesn't haev a tendancy to deteriorate over time. I know some people use wood, I've used metals such as silver and brass, you can use bone, plastic, stone, ...

Santa Fe Jewelers Supply sells a lot of interesting stone/metals that can be used for inlay material - check them out - they are very cheap and ususally have most everything in stock.

The one thing you should consider though is the ability to sand it flush with the fretboard. If you pick something that doesn't sand very easily, you could be at it for a long time.

[Morben Guitars]

Have you seen the product "Inlace?" Do a search on it. It's a "mix-up" inlay material often used by woodturners - it sands, machines, and drills very well. It's available in a wide range of colors as well.

[ItWasKnight]

Inlace actually looks pretty good... If I were to get white and add some of their solid color green dye, I should be able to make it any shade I want. I'll have to give this stuff a try.

If I wanted to give plastic a try as well, should I melt down some old mountain dew bottles, or is there a better way to get plastic that's suitable for this sort of work?

I'd really like to try out a few different materials to see which works best for me.

[JohnJohn]

I've used ivory to do inlays,(like on pool cue's).Right now I'm experimenting with some amber.