Clavin

Thanks LGM but trust me I have my share of mistakes. For example , I just did a really complicated all shell Celtic cross, with 5 knots in it. I got as far as gluing and sanding, but during the sanding process one of the red abalone pieces in an otherwise completely color-constant area sanded down to a rust colored area. It's enough to make me want to scrap it. It's too thin now for an easy repair. I wish I could poof it away Since I can't I obviously haven't achieved wizard status yet Your well on your way though. If you didn't spend so much time building those beautiful guitars of yours you would be speeding down the complicated inlay road. Your nearly there already Craig

No attack. And I'm not saying my way is right either. For basic inlays I do see many advantages to the flatboard method. But, if your goal is complex inlays, it may be better to train yourself for them from the beginning. I have always done it this way so I know no difference. I learned the harder way, but I became proficient at it. That's the important part Craig

I only inlay on radiused, pre-slotted fretboards. Every single inlay I have ever done, and will do. It really doesn't matter though. Although it does seem easier to do it all on a flat- non slotted board first (for the reasons GuitarMaestro mentioned), I like to know in advance where my color may shift due to sanding, and plan accordingly. It's much harder to know that doing it the other way. Craig Lavin www.handcraftinlay.com

Thanks guys. Johnsilver- pearl pierced into pearl.. no routing of pearl! You cut out the shape internally, cut out the piece, then inset it into the backdrop. It looks perfect if your cuts are dead on, almost as if it was always there. I almost have some type of piercing in all my pieces. It's just a cool effect this time around because the pure white heavily figured pearl contrasts so well with the subtle red and green abalone pieces that it's not too bold but very obviouse. It's almost like a winter scene. Sometimes the smallest comissions are my favorites. Thanks again. More soon. I'm plenty backlogged for orders! Have a great holiday guys. Craig L

This came out cool, so I thought I'd post it. 7 pieces of pearl in pearl, "fall color" leaves against a highly figured MOP backdrop. Traditional Gibson shape mandolin sized truss cover. Engraved. Thanks for looking as always! Craig Lavin

It works just like shell. It's very hard, and can be engraved as well. I have seen it used for fretboards. Craig

Skibum5545 is totally correct. Let me preface this with please no one take any offense to the following possibly frustrated tone of this post. Unless your routing is absolutely perfect, and no not even CNC routing is, as all wood will fray a bit (shell can be sanded smooth, thereby defining a clean edge) it's going to look off. Many many people here on this forum are looking for cheap, FAST ways to do inlay. I'm sorry to say there isn't a high quality effective way. Yes CNC is cheaper and faster than hand cutting, but unless your set up for it and doing runs of 100 or more, your most likely not going to make a living at it, or have the finances to set up a small shop for yourself. Just the programming for new art takes hours by a trained programmer. If your the hobbyist level luthier why not take the time to do it absolutely perfect, by hand, learn an old world skill, and be really proud of doing it the right way? I'm sorry to sound a little bitter here but everyone these days wants fast and easy. I often have possibly new clients look at a CNC site, then at my work, and want that for the same price as CNC. They get frustrated when they find out they can't and WON'T get it for that price. The top people in the field, the artists everyone look up to, are not doing it fast and easy. That's why their work stands out! Now on the other hand their is an absolutely possibly perfect application for the stuff your talking about. I have also seen it offered on EBAY for certain colors, so start a search there, maybe corian glue? If your doing an inlay out of SOLID corian already, and it has shell/corian/shell joints in it, you can use that stuff as filler to make your cuts look perfect, as it will fill the inlay inside the cuts, and hopefully match. OR, if you inlaying into corian (YES it can be done, I have seen it) with shell, then of course you can make it look absolutely pefect. Cut the inlay, rout the corian, add the inlay, fill with the glue. etc.. NO gaps whatsoever. In these ways yes it may be a miracle inlay material, but definitly NOT for the original inlay idea. It will also work of course if your doping inlays into kitchen counters! (I plan to do that one day) Hope this all makes sense. Do it right the first time. Craig Lavin, officially off of soap box. www.handcraftinlay.com

I sincerely don't think pearl dust is what got you so ill the first time around. Of course I could be very wrong as well. Yes pearl dust is toxic, yes you definitly need to waer a VERY high quality respirator (I use a $75.00 version myself, but I cut all the time), and you need a suction of some type taking the dust away from the cutting. This also helps you cut better, as the pattern remains dust free while cutting, as well as aiding with heath benefits. Pearl dust builds up in the lungs over time causing the disease silicosis. Many masonary workers used to get this etc.. before better hygene methods were implemented. It takes YEARS to build up in most cases, almost 40 or more depending on the environment. Some people think abalone releases poison gas when cut with water, but there has been no actual scientific proof of this in my understanding. The most nasty stuff in my opinion is the CA glue. Just one whiff of it makes my eyes tear, and gives me flue like symptoms. I hate it, but still use it because it's the best for my technique. I only use it with the carbon packed mask, and fan. Bottom line- stay away from the dust, be extremely careful around the glue, and you'll be fine. Craig L

Hi guys, Just in time for the season I finished this. It was designed by Paul Woolsen (luthier) and executed by me. It shows what you can do with recon stone, and gold and white and black pearl. The design is different as well. I do tons of crosses, This one finally looks different. Organic. Thanks for looking. Craig L

The holidays are stressful. I am running ragged, and getting little if any inlay done. It's very frustrating. Most lilely it's coming through in everything I undertake for now as well. Don't worry. I did get one rather seasonal inlay finished last night. I'll post pics soon. Craig

We'll I'm definitly not upset No harm done and yes what I was trying to say (rather unclearly I guess) is that Stew-Mac does sell bits down to 1/32. That's all as far as I ever go, even for inlaying into maple. You don't want to be so close that when the wood contracts, etc.. the inlay is forced out. Even CNC needs to leave a space for wood movement. The turbo carver bits are specificly designed for high speed issues, like egg carving, etc.. Oh by the way, I DONT recommend them for inlay engraving. Too much movement. Now go play nice. It's the holidays Cheers. Craig.

What advantage is there going to be in putting as high speed CO2 gas driven bit in a regular speed motorized dremmel? Your just plain better off using the dremmel router bits, and taking the time it requires. The only, ONLY fast way to rout is either CNC, or to a pre-made template exactly matching the inlays. Otherwise your still just hand routing. Craig L.

That website is new! Glad to know it's finally out there. They really have a lot, tons of catalogues, and materials. Most likely for inlay you'll have to thickness much of it to .06 or so with a thickness sander. The thinnest they ship is 1/8th" on a lot of things. They will ship internationally I am sure. Best to call and place an order, via credit card. They keep mine on file and I just call here and there and they ship and bill me later. Just a re-cap- call in orders- use credit card- the rest is up to you Craig Lavin

Masecraft supply has over a dozen red colored plastics at least. Some look like pearloid, others have other patterns. All with varying levels of clear/translucency/wave-ness. I don't have the number handy but do a search. They WILL have what you want. I guarantee it. I curretny have at least three to six different red pearloids I got from them in sheet or slab form in the shop. Craig Lavin

Regarding the idea of steaming out an inlay- and re-gluing it in powder coated. Any inlay has to be sanded down with whatever glue or slight fill surrounding it to be installed properly. You'll have gaps in the wood after you try to re-glue it in, and you'll have to level the glue, and sand away the coating. The coating will wear away with play anyway, even if you manage to work it out half well. You need to decide what color the inlay needs to be, find the material you want it out of, and inlay it properly. Inlay has been around for centuries. There is always room for artistic growth, and new techniques with regard to materials, etc.. but the basic fundamental proper methods for installation have been rooted in stone for decades. Silver is the least tarnishing metal that doesn't cost a fortune. Gold is very expensive as sheet. Craig www.handcraftinlay.com

Any metal will eventually tarnish. It's part of what metals do. Keeping them clean and going over them lightly with a very high grit sandpaper, or micromesh will clean them off, and not remove much material at all except for the tarnish. Using amalgum is difficult because it will fill to the rout, which better be perfect or the edges wil look off. It's WAY better to cut out of silver sheet, and then proceed as normal. Silver is available in sheet form in varying thicknesses at alost any jeweler supply. Just be careful when sanding it to not go too long, as it will heat up and rise up, and could potentially sand through. This happens more with bezel with anything, but sheet does heat up significantly enough to lift. I always take small pauses during sanding metals, then check the temperature with my wrist, only starting once it cools down again. C. Lavin

There's nothing special about Gibson's inlay material on the current ones. It's almost all plastics, except for the higher end models. Even then many times it's STILL fake pearloid. The same thing goes for almost any high quantity guitar builder. Yes even PRS. They use mostly abalam, especially in the dragons. Finding real true solid pearl on guitars is a rarity. Most use either plastic (mother of toilet seat) or abalam. While abalam is defintly a real pearl material, and its not cheap either, it lacks the luminance of real pearl in many situations. Most wood working stores sell it in sheets for pretty good prices. It's thick, about 1/4", and available in dozens of colors. They even make a "yuckish" off-yellow one if you want an old faded look to it. Constantines sells it www.constantines.com, and you won't have to bid. You shouldn't have to. It's cheap enough as it is. Craig Lavin www.handcraftinlay.com

Western Vs. Eastern inlay: Hi Guys. Many Eastern inlayers, while they do amazing seemingly detailed work, and they do, use shell as thin as .02" on fretboards, etc.. Most Western inlayers use shell in the .05-.06 range. The main differences are an inlay that will hold up better, wear better, have brighter luminance, and overall better color than eastern inlay given the hopefully long life of the instrument. Western inlay evolved from the instruments themselves, Eastern inlay went from art, to furniture (or vice versa) and then lastly to instruments. The ideas are the same though, as are their techniques. I may be wrong in the historical part of my post, but I am pretty sure about the methods and quality. Western inlay is just flat out better quality most times. And as we have stated before to no end, you get what you pay for. Craig L.

Acrylic mirror sheet is the best way most likely. Laying mirror flat and placing acrylic over it would be a glue bubble nightmare if any formed between the overlay and glass. Craig L

Good job! That looks great. I realize a lot can be missed form a picture, but if your happy with the results that's all that matters. It's harder to repair a sand through in the center of a multi-piece inlay, but it can be accomplished with the same techniques. Craig L

Don't deepen the pocket, just inlay it as is, you'll just shave off a bit of the top, and bring it down to .05 thickness anyway. The main thing is to keep the inlay edges in the wood, even though that can be thickness related, it shouldn't matter much in this case. Don't make more work for yourself. Craig Glad to hear everything else went well.

Drill out the main areas to the proper depth, leave the edges. Put super glue remover around the edges-top and from the inside- leave sit overnight. In the morning take an exacto knife and pry apart the shell border remaining. Clean out the edges, clean out the glue remover, and install a new one. If it's in ebony you can easily hide any new damage with good size dust. You should have little damage. I would use a large router bit to drill out the shell. Not drill bits. You want large even areas of coverage. If you go a bit too deep just fill in with ebony dust to raise the new inlay to the proper height. 1) This will work 2) If it doesn't add more glue remover 3) I hope you used super glue putting them in 4) If you didn't epoxy should be soft enough to just re-rout the edges if you drilled them think enough from the inside out. Best of luck, I'm here if you need me. Craig Lavin

Thanks again guys. Regarding stone- it's reconstituted stone. Rescue pearl has started selling a few types. It's very variable with how easy it is to work depending upon the type. The green lizard stone is very durable, and works like pearl, gaspeit cracks down whole slabs even as you cut it. It can be pretty frustrating, and it's as fragile when pushing it into the rout as well. The best way to handle it is use it thicker than shell, and glue your pieces together around fragile areas, then make secondary cuts around glued/supported pieces. If you don't know what I mean by that then maybe your not ready for the fragile stuff yet. It's not the cheapest of materials. Craig

Thanks guys, LGM. I would have rather put this in inlays, but last time I did that it got moved Tools used are the basics- jewelers hand saw with 1, and 03 blades, graver hand tool, and a foredom router. Dremmel is equally useable. No computers, CNC or other new-world technologies save for maybe a digital photo for real image reference. More soon. I have some really big jobs coming up. A new orca scene (watch out LGM- this ones special.. ) And: a Celtic cross, and hopefully a red eyed tree frog should I get the commission. LGM- I understand. I'm equally busy. We'll touch base one day. Craig