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Andy DePaule

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  1. Best thing I've found for polishing inlays in the fret board is Micro Mesh. The 1600 grit first, then the 2400 grit to finish will give the pearl or abalone a great shine. Also this; The black markings in abalone. I call this "Abalone Boogers" because it is a soft material between the grain layers in the shell blanks. Often when you have sanded the inlay flush, there is a black mark where you don't want it. You can scrape most of this thin layer of Abalone Booger off the inlay with a sharp knife. Then polish the nice abalone below with Micro Mesh and the inlay will look great.
  2. Shell blank prices. Found this topic while on google and thought I'd tell a little about pricing. I do not know the folks over at MOP in Australia, but from what I've been told they are good to deal with. I do not know what they pay for shells, processing, shipping ect, or how they grade blanks. I can tell you about our costs. As far as Paua Abalone goes, to get good sized 1.5mm (0.060") thick blanks we have to buy the J grade shells. There are also K grade shells that are cheaper, but the blanks from those tend to be only good on one side. We want to have blanks that will be good quality throughout the thickness of the blank. At this time K grade shells sell for $6.50 to $9.50 per kilo. The J grade we use cost $22.00 to $24.00 per kilo. Just 4 years ago we were paying $6.00 & $7.00 for the J Grade, but those days are gone for ever. K grade can be used to make laminated shell products and or thin inlays, but not for quality blanks. The yeild from 100 kilos of J grade Paua Shells is about 7 kilos of blanks. I am still selling Paua Blanks for the same price I was selling for in 2001 but will go up soon because of the increasing cost of quality shells. Mother of Pearl also has gone wild in the past 4 years. In 2002 we paid $2.00 to $3.00 per kilo and now have to pay about $16.00 per kilo. I did raise the price a little two years ago but now need to raise the price again. Yeild from WMOP shells is about 16 kilos of blanks from 100 kilos of shells. Even though we operate in a country where people often make very little money, we pay our workers and artists about three times the going rate. This is because we want to keep our good people and also because it is the right thing to do. We also help our workers with cash when they have problems, medical, family ect. They also get good a good bonus for major holidays and we buy the meals while they are working. I'd say more but it is 2am and way past my bed time. Andy
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