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Hmmmm . . . I may try that. Thanks!

The Viper!

Thanks for posting that. That's pretty cool. I tried it on a pretty typical font and it found the exact font I used. I will defintely ear mark this page. Thanks again.

You get about three large pieces (2-1/2" x 1-1/2 or larger) or about 5-6 smaller pieces. Unless you're making dots, get the larger pieces. The smaller ones are hard to work with for someone new to inlay.

I think they are pretty cool. Like the purple the best. Is that stained wood or some type of purple heart?

+1 to all the comments here. Hand saw. My favorite blade of most materials is 02. Buy a bunch of blades, they break easy, especially when you're learning. They're cheap too, like a package of 12 is about $3.50. Of course CAM is really the way to go if you can afford it.

Clavin has given you great advice. A +1 to everything he said. This is in addition to that. To polish out the silver, try using Heavy and Medium cut wax from Mcquires - yeah the car wax people. Use a dremel or other high speed polisher. I use silver all the time as well as copper, brass and nickel. The thorns in the inlay below are silver. It really looks great on a dark fingerboard (ebony or rosewood).

Sounds pretty. Purpleheart is an excellent choice to. It is a very hard wood and will hold up well to lot of playing.

Fender, they did that for you at the Woodcraft in Raleigh? Did they seem irritated when you asked? I always feel like theyre looking at me like im gonna steal somthing when I go there ← You've got to stop wearing the bag over your hand and carrying the gun.

try www.RescuePearl.com

Ok, this thread is just plain silly. I don't know, but it sounds like usainlay.com must be owned by Ed Roman I'm not on the OSHA list either and I have 100's of pieces of REAL shell blanks in my shop all the time. We go through this material by the pound. I purchase my shell from the largest supplier of the pearl in the US who only sells in bulk. There are supplies all over the country that will sell you small amounts of shell without any permits, acts of congress, and any other such BS. We also use alot of abalam and recon stone. The recon stone is actually the stuff that produces the most pain in the neck dust. That dust is heavy and smells bad. However their is a simple way to deal with it (I'll talk about that below). If you want some shell, write me and I'll sell you all you want. This is NOT a plug however because you can also get it from www.RescuePearl.com (highly recommended), Stewmac, masecraft (highly recommended for recon stone), with a simple call and a credit card. I personally don't even advertise raw shell, because I sell the cut pieces instead. And if you check out my site www.SharkInlay.com, I think you'll get the idea I know what I'm talking about. Now, about the dust. Shell dust is very fine and can cause respetory problems. If you breath it in for a while you will be coughing that night. I have heard, but I have no proof of, that the stuff can reform in your lungs and cause grief over time. There is the "simple" solution, go the the tool store and buy a good, portable, dust collector. When you are cutting, mount the hose to the back or side of the cutting surface and suck up all the airborn particles. This will elimiate 90% of the problem. Be sure to suck up the dust that collects on the cutting surface and your hand every couple of pieces. If you use a breather mask along with this, there is no problem. Everything you need can be purchased for $200 or less. The last tip, is when you sand the shell, like with a dremel or something, sand toward the dust collector so the dust will no right into the moving airstream. Recon stone sands and files great. It is easy to work with except that it cracks when it gets thin. You are better off working with thicker pieces and filing them down once they are inlaid. Use 0-0-0-0 steel wool to final polish it. As far as the Abalam "rippling" when it is sanded in a radius, yes that can happen, but for the most part it look really cool when it does. That's what happened to wings on this piece. But doesn't that look cool? Some abalam materials are better than others. The Pauas (call colors), green ripple, and the heart all work great and even if they ripple no one will care because they will look great. Any other question? I'll be glad to answer them.

Nice tag. What is the thickness of the pieces?

Actually oil is what I was thinking about. Remember this isn't a big problem and shouldn't happen in most case as long at the inlays are set deep. It's the thin inlay that will pop.

Yeah, I was afraid of that when I posted. I would rather not say, because if they got barraged with a lot of requests like that they probably wouldn't be too happy about it. Let's just leave it as it was something I would have paid for and ended up getting it for free with a number of nice, chatty, emails to go alone with it. I was very happy. I like to return favors, hense I wanted to post this.

Thanks, I'd really be interested in that I have multiple language to translate. Can't learn them all and wouldn't want to.

I found a supplier. Robbjack. I called them up and they have bits all the way down to .005. They sent me some samples to try out. Haven't had time to try them out yet, but I'll report back when I do. The smallest sample I have is .021. They look good though and come highly recommended from a source I really trust.

Since these are basically plastic, I suggest that you use 0-0-0-0 (extra-fine) steel wool to final polish the inlays. That will give them a nice shine and can be use again with if they dull. Keep the steel wool dust away from your pickup. It will stick to the polls and is a pain to get off. Tape over your pickups before you start.

If you go to my site under the "Workshop" section, there is a link call the "Pegasys Project". That might give you some ideas. Email me if you have questions. The black MOP you have is pretty rainbow. If it's like that on both sides, I'd send it back. The Pink is really nice though. Who was your supplier?

I think this would be a bad idea. In could cause the board to weaken and possibly create problems sonically. To return to the original subject, use thicker woods that will prevent the inlay from cracking. Headstock plates available from LMI (.14" thick) work great, aren't too expensive and come in a variety of nice looking woods. Inlay the wood deep, say .08". This will also get rid of the problem mentioned above about the wood chipping around the edges since the bottom will be in the board and the top will be sanded off. Inlay the board with epoxy (the two tube kind) using some of the saw dust from the fretboard not the inlays to color the epoxy. Then radius the board after the inlays are in. This will create a nice smooth board. Now here is a POSSIBLE problem, although not very likely; many woods contract and expand at different rate with humidity. It POSSIBLE that the two different woods could lossen and cause the inlay to come loose. Not a big problem since the inlay can be reglued, but just something to keep in the back of your mind. This could also cause the glue around the inlay to crack. Another thing not too hard to fix, so not a biggy. Sealing the board could be helpful in preventing this. Lastly, the comment above about soft woods is a good one if the inlays are large. If they are small (say less then the size of your finger pads) then this shouldn't be problem. Good luck with your project.

I just wanted to drop a small note about Warmoth and their customer service. Recently I emailed them and asked for a very strange favor. Something way out of the ordinary. I was willing to pay for it too. The sales department emailed me back right away for clarification. The next thing I know, I'm getting emails from Ken in the custom shop. Long story short, yesterday I got my request and they didn't even charge me anything for me. Ken couldn't have been nicer too. That's what I call customer service. I realize that I have referred a lot of people to them in the past, but this was above the call of duty. Just wanted to shared that I think these guys have it together.

Amazing pieces of wood, that's for sure. Love that top. The center sap wood is just too cool. You must post pics when that puppy is done.

Have you used Babel Fish much? I am starting to have a need for a good autotranslator and was thinking of using this one. How good a job does it do?

Actually the word can be spelled either way Phonix (based on the German word) or Phoenix based on the Spainish word. If you go to Google Images and type in the word Phonix - you will see that there are many pictures, photographs, and diagrams based on either spelling. Including a famous German aircraft call "The Phonix". The city of Phoenix was once part of Mexico and therefore influence by the Spainish, hence the spelling. The pronounciation word is actually spelled PHONICS with a "C", not an "X". However, since there are many people who have sent me feedback about this, I don't want to cause any confusion so I have changed the spelling on the web-site to Phoenix. I personally perfer the other spelling, but what the hey . . . go with flow I always say.

That's cool looking. How did you do the scaling?

Yeah, we mainly take custom orders. Everything from tcovers to full all over (body, fretboard, headstock) inlays and everything in between. We can also supply just the shell pieces, precut, if you want to inlay it yourself. Pretty much the whole ball of wax. We are thinking of getting into the raw materials sales as well. The Phonix covers is currently without a bid. The one bidder it had retracted the bid. It has 9 watchers however, but this is blowing my mind. This cover is amazing. My son just purchased a new guitar and for a gift I said I would make him any cover he wanted, including customs. He picked the Phonix. His guitar is an ibenez and we tried the cover on that guitar. WOW! It looked cool. We are going to have to drill a new screw hole for the cover, but is fits on the headstock really well. I think I will get a picture of this guitar and put it in the next ad. No bids yet???? Oh well, someone might walk away with this gem cheap.