Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi
I recently posted a thread about doing my first shell purfling. I just
purchased a bunch of straight strip abalone shell (real shell no lamination)
The info I received before said that you can just brake small pieces in and
work around the curves. Is this true for pure shell and not ablam. Or do I
have to miter each piece?

Thanks again
Andy

_________________
Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hi Andy,
I've never had good luck breaking the pieces and angling them where
they meet. I always file/sand a straight edge on both ends (either ablam
or solid shell) and do the same on the next piece until it mates perfectly
to the previous piece. The seams just about disappear when I do it this
way. It just takes me forever. As I said in the previous thread, I also shape
the long edges to conform to the curve of the body or rosette (assuming
that's what you're doing). This is what works for me, but others do the
break-apart thing, as previously discussed.
Craig

Solid pearl you can file and join together. The abalam is more suitable to snap and bend.

Real shell does not have a perfect bond between layers. Depending on the type of shell when you snap it, it may not break true, and delaminate oddly. This is more of an issue with abalone than with mother of pearl, and a big issue with Paua abalone. This is the disadvantage of real shell. So for best results file or miter the edges when using real shell.

The advantage is that when you sand real shell you will never end up with a half sand ed though pattern that looks funky.

I have a very small wet tile cutter with a 4" dia. diamond wheel I use to fit and miter strips. I paid $9.00 for the table and another $10 for the wheel at HF several years ago. Works like a charm

Also be sure to pay attention to the direction of refraction of each piece of shell. Either alternate or orientate in the same direction for best results.

I've used Abalam on 2 guitars and it was quite easy. But after seeing Mark Swanson's build in progress where he used real abalone, I now have to go that route. The difference in beauty and quality was amazing. The time factor is bound to increase significantly but I'll gladly make the time to achieve the improvement in results.

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Ablam is not bad for purfling if you do not need to sand much at all. but if you have to sand enough to go through a layer of laminate you will get some really funny looking patterns caused by next layer show through and partcial snand through in areas.

I have always looked at extra time spent on details as just a requirment to achieve the outcome desired. If I was cranking out 30 a year it might be a differnt issue. But I only put out 4-5 a year with the intent to take what ever time is required to do the best job I can.

Also in my mind If I ever have to repair binding or top I would be conserned with the funky pattern sanding problem when cleaning up a repair.