Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok, how does a guy or girl cut a "zero" for inlay? Can I drill out the center of an oval and shape it with a file, or do I have to cut into the center of the oval from the edge, or cut two halves of the oval and inlay them together? Craig? Any ideas or wisdom appreciated.

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

I've drilled out the center for a letter D, then used a pearl saw & files to shape it.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Here is how I would approach it.

First, I would see if I had any excess stock left over from the cut offs (you didn't specify if it was from a fingerboard or headstock... but it doesn't really matter) try to find a good color and grain match then thin a section of it down to inlay width (.05 - .06").

I would then scribe out the inside shape on this piece and cut it out. work it until it fits comfortably inside the 0. Obviously with ebony you don't have to be as careful as you do with other lighter colored wood.

Then I would route the outside pocket in your final material, drop in the insert, glue it up (I use the dust and CA method) and sand it flush.

It is a little time consuming, but it works like a charm.

Some people just fill the entire area with dust and ca, but I don't like to see large voids of no grain or texture.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Larry

When doing my logo (to the left of this message you will see it) I drill all the centers of the letters with a 1/32 bit. Then I thread the blade through the hole and cut out the inside piece.

A lot depends on the size of font you are using. Brock's idea is good. If the center of your "zero" is really small like the inside of the letters on my logo then I just fill with ebony dust and CA. often I try and find a really small piece of wood to insert into the center and fill around that. But when it is really small you don't notice it much either way.

I glue a computer printout of my logo onto the headstock and then I rout out the text. This is also how I have done all my other text inlay.

Hope that makes sense.

Josh

_________________
Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Basically for me it comes down to this- size of the whole.

1) For a very small numeral area I normally engrave the hole, if it's in ebony.

2) For anything larger then what will work with the graver, I cut out the center with my 03 blades, file clean, then re-build the inside with whatever material the board or inlay corresponds to. It makes the insides perfectly clean. You can't even tell it was routed, because it's not. The dust fill method works for a very small space, anything too large looks cheap. If a finish goes over it that could minimize the effects of dust, but on a fingerboard it becomes obviouse.
Good luck.

Craig L   

_________________
www.handcraftinlay.com

Thanks guys...I think I have enough to go on now...it's because this will be guitar # 10 for me and the customer wants me to commemorate it as it were...I was thinking of just fibbing and calling it # 11 since that'd be easier to cut and inlay!

_________________
http://www.presnallguitars.com

When my wife does 0's she cuts out the center and then cuts a tiny piece of ebony to fill in the hole. Here is an example of her work. All the letters and the zero are filled with tiny pieces of ebony.

Wow Dave your wife does some great work. I love that headstock.

Yea, I'm really proud of her. The body of this guitar has the lead singers' face inlayed right below the bridge. It's great being married to my inlay artist.

Okay Dave now we want to see all of the pics you can't leave us hanging.

Here's the body inlay. The guitar is a 335 style electric.

Wow, Thats very nice inlay work!

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Looks like a very talented family.Thanks for sharing beautiful work.