jemmyell

Pre ban ivory is legal, but the sticky point can be documentation.

Yes, exactly. You are suppose to have any ivory you use documented by a licensed reseller. Whether someone would come after you for a few guitars you make is questionable, but if they did the fines are bad and jail time is possible. How much do you have? How many guitar would it make?

I use Mamoth ivory myself and I keep documentation on all of it.

Old ivory though is GREAT stuff. Naturally yellowed. Beautiful. You can cut, sand and glue it just like any other material you use. But, it doesn't smell that good.

All elephant Ivory that is currently in the country is assumed to be pre-ban. The burden of proof is on fish and game. The only Ivory seller license that I know of is from New York, I have one, but I don't sell Elepahnt Ivory anymore since it is very illegal in California since 2007. There is even an 'illegal to posess with intent to sell' clause in the penal code. It is also illegal to import into California. So, I also only use and sell Mammoth Ivory now. It could be implied that a guitar that has any elephant ivory on it cannot be brought into California, even to return from vacation!

The true authority on this is David Warther, of IvoryBuyer.com.

-James Leonard

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http://www.leonardmusicalinstruments.com for order inquiries

you can see photos at:

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Hello again everybody.

Since I've been totally focused on making cigar box guitars for the past 2 years or more now, I've gotten to the point where measuring the fret positions for every guitar is a tedious chore. I don't look forward to it. I came up with a design for a jig to simplify measuring the frets to customize the string scale to fit the cigar box and the neck attached to it. Just coming up with the design was the hard part, or so I thought...

I drew up my design and started hunting around for a place to stamp it out of aluminum, steel, or laser cut it out of clear acrylic. Just to make one jig the cost skyrocketed to anywhere from $500 to $1000 and up!!!!

I started looking at homebrew CNC machines today. Like I really have the free time to tinker with something like that. I've looked at just buying one off the shelf - 5 grand right there (or 5 fret jigs).

Anyway, I'm at the point where I'd like to open up the topic to you guys. I have a really good idea. It's never been done before. It's so dern simple that I think other guitar makers could use something like this. But, the cost of having something made for me is way out of my price range. I need to find a cheap way to make a bunch of these things. They have to be accurate which is why I was going for CNC or laser cut templates.

Any tips, advice, offers to help are welcome.

Thanks,

Hi, if you are interested in homebrew CNC go hang out at the CNCZone - http://www/cnczone.com - there is a musical instrument construction forum and GREAT advice on home CNC building. Using 8020 aluminum pieces and gecko electronics you can make a pretty decent machine that just bolts together now.

-James

Are there any 2mm or thicker 7mm diameter Pearl Dots available?

Does anyone sell 7mm diam. staffs of pearloid for making it yourself?

Stewmac only have 0.05" thick (1.27mm).

Hi,

My first post! I can make dots and other inlay shapes from pretty much any flat material. I just got some REALLY nice 2mm figured white mother of pearl sample blanks in standard sizes that I will use on my CNC routers. If you still need them, let me know. How do you plan to inlay them?

-James Leonard