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So I've had this snakewood board for a lot of years and am wanting to finally use it for a fretboard. The figure is pretty good on one side but not all the way through. Cutting it in a tapered fashion gives me the best figure. I have a few ideas on how to set it up to slot it with my Stewmac tablesaw blade but wondered if there were any ways that people have done it that might make things easier for me? I'm thinking careful alignment and double stick tape to a carrier piece of wood that's squared up.

I would cut it rectangular a slight bit larger than the width at the soundhole end, then slot it, then taper it.

If you really want to cut it tapered first, then slot it, you could double sided tape it to a piece of 1/4” plywood that is rectangular, and index your jig off the plywood. But I think the first way is better.

Thanks Don. I edited my post while you were replying but it seems to be the best way to keep as much of the figure as possible using the double stick way.

Maybe rip it and join it with the figure on the other side?

From the photo, it looks like you can cut it so the right edge is un-tapered (parallel to the fingerboard centerline). But if your jig can only register off the left edge, then what I would do is glue a piece of random scrap wood to the edge and cut that parallel to the centerline.

For manual slotting, I mark the fret positions along the high and low string paths, clamp down a wood block at the marks, and gently hold the saw against it while cutting. Works for regular boards, fan frets, and pre-tapered boards.

Assuming you are using a template that registers on the fence, can't you just match the center line of your tapered board to the center line of the template?

Pat

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Pat

Glue a strip of soft wood to the edge and then cut it down later.

If you want to taper it first this is a simple jig you can make
you know your taper so for sake of discussion let us say you have 1 3/4 at the nut and 2 1/4 at the 12th
so you now know the amount of taper , next take you scale length and plot the nut to 12th fret distance.
2 1/4 minus 13/4 leaves you 1/2 in
divide by 2 1/4 in taper
take a trued board. Make a rail to match this taper.
double stick the fretboard and there you go

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You might want to put a couple of index pins through your trued board and part way into the fingerboard just to backup the double stick tape. That would avoid the misfortune of the tape slipping.

+1
With a good splice joint and the strings casting shadows it might be undetectable.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to try ripping it and joining it to get the best figure. Double stick taping it to a carrier board sounds like the best way to slot it in tapered form on my tablesaw. I may not have to taper it if I rip and join.

I can't know for sure exactly what your setup is, but if you align the centerlines of both the fretboard and slotting template, it shouldnt matter how tapered your fretboard is.

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If you angle the blade on your table saw you can rip it at a bevel angle and then bevel the other edge of the joint and make a strong splice joint that is much less likely to ever separate than a simple butt joint.

Thanks Clay. More glue surface makes sense. Snakewood doesn't seem to be particularly oily but I've never tried it before.

Agreed. Just thought there might be some brilliant way of doing it that I haven't seen before which I've certainly seen on this forum before and gave me cause to say "why didn't I think of that".

Make a sacrificial wedge the same taper as the fretboard. When they are both against the fence the fretboard will be 90 degrees to the fence. Slot as normal moving wedge and fretboard together

I always put 1/4" holes, on the centerline, in the ends of the fretboard, outside the template obviously. All my fixturing for putting on the radius and slotting and tapering run off of those holes They are trimmed off just before I mount the fretboard on the neck blank.
For me there is no such thing as a straight line on a guitar, everything is off the center line.