Official Luthiers Forum!

A while ago we had a discussion about the Stew Mac circular fret slotting blades.
Several of us mentioned that the slots were too too tight for SM's standard fret wire.
Well, as i mentioned I sent my blade back & the replacement arrived this week. As promised, here is what I found with the new "redesigned" blade.
The new blade measures the same as the old one, but when I did some test cuts (in Ebony) the slots were right on at .023". (a firm fit with a 23 thou feeler guage) I hammered in a couple of test frets & the fit seems just right. WHEW!
I haven't done a whole fingerboard to see if there will be an accumulating effect which will cause excessive back bow, but I'm pretty confident it'll be fine.
Stew Mac Said they would replace a defective blade, even if the 90 day return date had passed, so any other guys having the same problem can probably get a new blade at no charge.
SM even re-embursed me for the return postage... Good guys those!

I emailed them about mine, which I had shipped 11-14-2005, and they said that they were already shipping the revised version at that point. I haven't actually tried mine out yet.

I'm not sure when the design was revised, but if it was purchased at least since then, it should be alright.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Stew Mac said they sent mine out this week too. I haven't actually got it yet but I should be using it soon as I have 26 students needing to slot their fretboards in the next few weeks.
Erick at Stew Mac was great to work with and said I would be getting a blade from the new batch as I had one from the older batch.

What was the slot thickness from the old blades? I may give them a call
and try to buy thier returned blades. .023" is a little wider than ideal for
me. If the old ones fall in the .0215" - .0225" that would be perfect.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

I was getting a firm fit with a .020" feeler.