Official Luthiers Forum!

How does everyone inlay purfling next to abalone in a rosette.

 I struggled with my first one by trying to inlay the purfling and shell all in one go. This time around I was thinking of routing the channel for the shell and inlaying it. Then routing the groove for the purfling right mext to the shall and inlaying it.

There is a small chance of just skimming the edge of the shell with the router bit. Has anyone tried this, and is it a viable method?

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Allen,

Stewmac sells teflon strips. You inlay the perfling and strip at the same time, when the glue is dry, pull the strip and inlay the shell.

Cheers

Kim

We put the purflings in, then the shell and flood it with CA.

Remembering to shellac the the area.

Cheers

Bob

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

I route for the shell first. I get a good fit but not crazy tight.

Then I creep up on both the inside and outside purfs. I test fit everything after every cut at this point.

So once the shell fits good, I take a little on the outside purfs and test fit. If it doesn't fit a take a smidge more and retest. Once I am happy with how it fits I take the inside edge.

I generally aim for a tight fit, but not so tight I can't get it out once it is in.

I generally glue with CA or LMI white depending on how tight everything is fitting. If it is really tight I use a seal coat of shellac and CA, if it is a comfortable fit I use white glue.

I do not use teflon. I have never had much luck with this on a rosette. I find it harder to use than just getting the size of the channel right.

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

Thanks everyone. I was going to use 2 narrow bands of pearl with a purfling strip between them and on the outside. I don't have any teflon strip on hand, so I installed one band of pearl just a hair lower than the level of the sound board. Then wicked in some CA.

Later today I'll route the rest of the channels and do as Brock suggested. It's the way I did it on my second guitar, but it only had one ring of pearl.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

I do it slightly different from others. I build up the complete rosette and then install it.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I do the shell and the purfs at the same time. Install the whole think first and then apply the glue.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com