Clavin

Hi Guys. I've been busy with logos, etc.. not too much fun stuff, but had the chance to get this one out. It's Paua heart, black pearl, gold pearl, green gaspeit stone, green lizard strone, pink mussel, and regular MOP. This is another of my favorite type of inlay- the "most likely no one has EVER done this before" type Thanks for looking! Craig Lavin More can be seen here http://www.handcraftinlay.com/frilled.html I hope I didn't break any new rules by posting here. It's been a while for me, and I know things have changed rapidly regarding pic posts, etc.. Thanks again.

Gold pearl doesn't imply "vintage" it implies gold. Real gold pearl looks nothing like old faded nitro over white pearl, which has "yellowed". It's bright, and very colorful. It's also easy to inlay flash on-or off, giving it a lot more contrast between similar colored pieces. Inlaying your name, especially in script is harder than just the image alone, however the more you cut, the better you get. If this is your first ever inlay do yourself a big favor and do a few on some scrap first. You'll see your cuts get better with each inlay, and you WILL be unhappy with your first pieces. There's nothing dangerouse about practicing first. Craig www.handcraftinlay.com

It's five to six pieces of varying shades of gold pearl, Not white, depending on if you make the upper right wing tip seperate or not from the curl. It seems attatched on the image shown. That's a standard easy inlay for any experienced inlayer. For a total beginner it may not work so clean the first time. The cuts are tight, the shapes are relatively smooth curved, and all the pieces interconnect. Make sure your drawings are very cleanly drawn, and make it larger than you need so you can shrink down the joint lines tight enough. Use the tutorials here, and ask questions. Good luck C. Lavin

I think LGM has done plenty of those already. I would go with him. Maple is a pain to work with though. It may raise the price. Craig Lavin

Thanks Jeremy. I've been holding back on this one for some time now just because of those competition comments Once you hit a certain level of quality of cuts and routing, the only place left to go is originality of design and creativity, something that really is personal, not competitive. Of course reproduction is also flattery. I try to emulate those I feel are an inspiration. As far as real inlay business competition goes I have never, and most likely won't ever, taken a commission from anyone on this forum. The few that have asked for me to do inlay work for them I have referred to Jeremy. The whales are cool. My next inlays are self competitive. I'm working on Living sea-3. Top secret inlays until they debut at the ASIA show in June. It's going to out-do anything I've done yet. Craig

You could do this with thin woods if they were heat bent, or plastics if you do the same (carefully), but your better of just using adequately thick materials instead. Another method is to just glue up your inlay pattern pieces together on the radius using wax paper underneath so the inlays conform to the shape of the board, then remove them, then glue/scribe, inlay the curved inlay. This only works on multi-piece inlays along the length of the board. If your just looking for large one piece inlays for fret markers just use thicker materials. You should be able to get away without sanding through using .06" minimum. I only inlay on pre-radiused boards. It's the right way to do it. Inlaying then radiusing takes off too much shell pattern, and you can't plan for color control around that as much. Craig Lavin

Agreed. Frets must come out for a professional job. Go to the tutorials section and start there. There is a lot to begin with! Craig L.

Thanks Guys, LGM, I think that since it is a completed work, regardless of the type (guitar, etc..) , they decided it belonged here. I do think it could be in either. I often wind up talking about techniques, etc.. while diplaying finished pieces, as well as tips. Like right now Longjohnsilver- I would either have cut the lettering in advance during the original cutting process (not after, so it goes as planned) or you can inlay it and re-slot it afterwards. Just keep something in mind with text as art, especially Kanji, which is based upon lines and other shapes (not english) If it's going through frets make sure it's big enough that the fret is made almost obliviouse to the art, or it will look off. That or just make it all fit into the fret slot. I am smack in the middle of the hurricane as I type! I somehow have been lucky enough to have power, thousands do not. It's not too fun Craig

Hello Johnsilver. Thanks . Francis will be upon me by tomorrow, so don't expect any replies. I'll do the best I can, but I fully expect to have no power by noon, until??? If the inlay is going into something dark, like ebony just scribe it and route. Otherwise if you have the original cutting design you can take a copy of that and glue it down with 3-M tack cement ( found in a spray can) in place, and rout to the edges of the paper. It gives you a better routing pattern. It's a little more detailed then just that, and I don't have time to go into it. Sorry. As far as the inlay goes, it looks a little rough. I would get a set of the smallest needle files you can, and clean up the edges with those until everything looks smooth. Until ou get your cutting technique, you may want to file things. I still do, just to be perfect. Noones cuts are so clean at first on every piece that they don't at least have a little smoothing of the edges to do. Best of luck. Craig

Thanks once again. I'm always flattered and honored by your (the groups) generosity! You guys are critical, and have seen many things, so I enjoy being regarded highly on this forum As for pricing, I won't get into details, but it depends upon each piece. Each requires different levels of materials, engraving, and design, each step which requires different amounts of hours to perform. The cutting on this one took maybe 6 hours (most likely a bit less) , the engraving took maybe 4 or so hours. The design and research took maybe 8 if I had to total it up, so it really depends. Sanding it took 3.5 hours for some dumb reason. I work on a one price final quote, not an hourly rate as most inlayers do. I like to know I am not too limited on time, given the price. I need to see my pieces come to full fruition, not half-done, so I try to get the amount I need to make it all happen. I normally do way more work than what I charge for, just because my name being pristine means so much to me, and if I need to add something to make it look good it means more to make it look good than go for price. The original quote for this piece did NOT include the corner reef scene. It just looked to empty without it, so I added it in. I can't do that all the time, but the price point should leave a little room for artistic freedom. Craig

Thanks www Future projects include a full neck grizzley bear scene, another spider web scene for fingerstylist Don Alder, and my Living sea -3 guitar- all the woods are purchased, now I just need to find a luthier with the skills and time.. I have a few worked out, but they may not have the time. First I need to live through this hurricane. It's probable that it may go right over me! Craig

I was waiting for someone to ask that question! The Kanji ( started out many years ago as Chinese symbology, then adopted by Japanese) is Sea Turtle. The upper symbol is sea, the bottom turtle. You can tell by the shape of the bottom one it even looks like a turtle. Typically the holes in the Kanji are open, but I wanted to make it a little more organic looking, like it maybe had scales, by adding silver in the holes. A Japanese reader would slam it as not being text, but art has to has some freedom. It's not for a Japanese client anyway. If it had been I would have kept it as pure as possible. Even slight variations in the Kanji font (swoosh angle, etc...) can mean a whole different word. I researched the text relatively heavily before starting the art. Craig L

Thanks again everyone. None with the walnut wet yet Skibum. Believe me, I'm waiting to get new pics for my site until after it's got a finish. The wood tone is so different wet that it's unreal. It looks like a different inlay. Rich browns, and it really lights up everything. These pics are really horrible, and don't do it ANY justice at all. Normally photographing inlays is tough, but for some reason this particular one, maybe it's the neutral tones, is just not happening. I just tried again and they still lack any appeal at all. The marbled abalone your asking about is red abalone heart. It's the part of the abalone shell where the adductor (closing) muscle attatches to it. It has that amazing burled pattern. Few people carry it, and it's very expensive, almost limited in availablity. I pay more than you want to know for it, and I hoard just about as much as I can get The only good source for it is Chuck Ericson, the "duke of pearl" He has a $1000.00 minimum order. I order all of my main shell supplies through him. He supplies most luthiery suppliers in the country. It is available in an abalam sheet, but I try to stick to the real shells. I think the sheet in .05" stock is like $250.00 a 1/4 sheet. I may be off a bit, but it aint cheap! Craig

Thanks guys. I agree about the wood choice, but for the price point I didn't want to spend the many extra hours working into bright white maple. The walnut will look nicer when it's finished. I do plan on doing something similar with a quilt and teal blue stain later. Craig

Thanks. The hardest part for me these days is design. The mechanical part just comes naturally for the most part. I spend many more hours drawing than cutting/engraving. That's a tough question. They are all challenging in their own way. The hardest ones to do for me now are the boring standard inlays. I just can't seem get the energy to be excited about fret position markers. Craig.

Hi guys. This is a custom humidor top for a client. I have more to do (a little) but it's basically done. This is unfinished, but when wet the walnut gets a nich rich dark tone. It will look WAY better when finished. Getting good pics of this one was very very difficult for some reason. Thanks for looking! It's about 80 pieces total. Craig Lavin

Just taking the cut out shapes and working them (carefully) flat on some 80 grit paper will work. The higher the grit the faster it will go down. Working with very thick materials during an inlay is going to lead to mistakes later down the line. Try to keep them all relatively the same thickness. Just make sure you sand from the top of the material down, so the bottom stays even in the rout. You can also carefully press it against a sanding belt, but that's risky to say the least. If it's really thick, and there is room for some play then go for it. I use a Preac mini ship builders thickness drum sander to get all my materials to .o6" thickness (for the most part) before using them. Sometimes I may just wing it, but is better to have everyting nice and equally thicknessed out. Craig

Get the inlays thinner or you will only be making things harder on yourself. Since they are plastic they should sand down easily enough from the top with 80 grit paper. After they are at around maybe .10 thick, make sure the shape is what you want ( file them if you need to) inset them, and use Stew Mac #10 CA glue to fill in the routes. Let it dry overnight. Make sure any low glue areas are filled in with fresh glue to level it up before sanding it, or you will just need to do it again after sanding the board down. Starting with 80 grit, work your way back and forth over the full length of the board. Then as the inlay sands away and you get closer to the remaining glue move down to 120, then when the glue is still there, but almost gone, switch to 220, then as the glue and inlay seem to be almost done, switch to 400 grit and polish. Since it's plastic be sure to switch grits before it gets to shallow, or you may not be able to get out the deeper grit scratches. After it looks done, touch up any bubbles in the glue, etc.. with new glue, and sand it away after it dries with 220, and repeate the process from there. You can pick out bubbles with a #11 exacto blade. After the touch up is complete, keep going with 600 grit, and higher to acheive the level of polish you want. Don't sand in any one area too long, or you will put a dip in the board, and ruin it completely. Sanding plastics goes relatively quick, so pace yourself and go slower than you need to. Look at the blue shark inlay to get a better idea of the sanding process. That had plastics in it. Best of luck. C lavin Pics of my newest inlay soon.

When people refer to mixing ebony dust with CA, or epoxy , or any other method with regard to INLAYS, the goal is very different from what you are seeking. It seems you just want a black filler to make something seem black. When edging off an inlay made of pearl, etc... the goal is to hide the route gaps as best as possible and make them look like the wood the inlay is inset into, or make your gaps become invisible. The inlay should look like it was always part of the wood. For me personally I feel CA with ebony dust of a very pure and small size works wonderfully well. I have also seen black dyed epoxy work well for others, but NOT for me. I normally bring an inlay to 1,500 grit, or micromesh for final buffing. Epoxy tends to get more shiney than the wood at that point so it's better to stop around 400 grit or so possibly. If your just filling a route to make an "inlay" by filling it with epoxy, use whatever you want.. C.Lavin

Hello again. Q 1) Is it easy to work with wood as an inlaying material like curly maple and lace wood est. (I’m talking about a replacement for pearl, and I know this is a stupid question) Is there any thing different in the process of cutting or gluing? A Same difference. Glue a backer of some sort to the wood though, it tends to fray out when cutting it. Even just coating the back with super glue will help. Also remember- sanding over light woods gets them very dirty, especially in ebony. Q 2) What do you mean by "plane your cuts" do you mean like file the edges for a perfect match, or what? A I mean watch for how to not waste shell by cutting through it to get to a piece, and look for fragile areas where you may want to approach the cut from a different angle. Many times I leave a thin connecting piece half cut, just so I can glue it to the adjoining piece, glue them together to strengthen the fragile piece, then cut the rest of it out. Q 3) And last but not least how long have you been doing inlay work? A I'll never tell Way, way Less than most famouse guys though. My work can be seen at www.handcraftinlay.com

I have seen stones inset lower than the surface, and covered with CA on headstocks, then finished over. Obviously this means a lot. There is no wear on the headstock, hence everything hopefully stays nice. I can't recommend anything for the fretboard, as everything will scratch or wear with use. Even pearl thins out over heavy use and time. Woods more so. You can maybe get away with CA glue, but polish it out very well, and maybe experiment with a different, less expensive countersunk material first. C. Lavin

Real opal has to be inset, not inlaid. It's to hard. I can go into details, but suffice it to say it won't work easily. I have never seen real opal inlaid into a guitar, but you may see it worked into an inlay after the inlay is completed. There is a synthetic opal, but it's as hard as the real stones. Recon stone is much softer than real stone, but it's very true to the colors. There is no recon opal. C Lavin

My best beginners tips? 1) Stay with dark ebony for the wood. NOTHING else. 2) Cut carefully and plane your cuts. Cut perpendicular to the pearl, cut slow ( as a beginner, you'll speed up with time) 3) Use a technical drafting pencil for all your drawings ( I use 4-8 H leads depending upon what drawing stage I'm at) . The thinner the lines, the tighter your cuts if your joining seperate pieces. 4) Biggest one here- your drawing IS your inlay. All steps after the art is generated are just attempts at making the drawing come to life out of various materials. If your drawing and art is sub par, NOTHING can fix it. Work on being an artist first, then an inlay artist secondly. Luckily they suuport each other so I find I can make gains at both during each piece. I have been working on cleanly drawn, creative art more recently as it is the foundation for great inlays. Oh, and last but should be first... If your guitars suck and nobody likes the way they sound or play it won't matter how fancy the inlays are. Make a superior guitar first. C. Lavin

Fold the silver stock into the pattern you want it to take. Glue this carefully down to the board using Duco cement. Carefully scribe around this with an exacto knife, remove the silver with acetone. Carefully remove any glue remaining with acetone, and fill the scribed lines with chalk. Rout carefully to the line. Don't excede the line, but make sure the chalk pattern is cleanly removed by the routing. There are a few other methods, this is the most direct. Whatever you do your completed/cut materials should determine the final route, NOT the other way around. Don't rush, and don't be put off if it takes longer than you think. For a begginner depending upon your pattern it should take a few hours. The best way to ruin an inlay is to just tell your self you can "fix it after I get to the next part". This is almost always never the case. There are two kinds of inlays in luthiery. Those done right, and those done wrong It's easy to tell them apart. C.Lavin www.handcraftinlay.com

[Other options include filling the rout with melted solder or silver dental amalgam] This is most likely the least attractive method. It may seem easier because you don't have to cut anyting out, but if your rout isn't absolutely perfect neither is your vine shape. At least in ebony a non-perfect rout can be dealt with cleanly. Your wire most likely isn't changing shape, so you will be much more succesfull in the begining. Perfect routes take hours, even days for some patterns. Just my 2 cents C. Lavin