Official Luthiers Forum!

I am doing a dove outline inlay on an EI rosewood fretboard. I routed it out with a .020" router bit. I want to fill it with a light colored material. I tried maple saw dust bonded with thin super glue, but it turned out way to dark. Any suggestions to make it lighter? Thanks!

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Color pigmented epoxy I do this often. Now I assume that you over sized the channel so that you will end up with a boundary fill all around the inlay. Otherwise a differnt collor fill would have no real affect. Am I correct? If this is the case I have to tell you that is a hard technique to pull off. It is difficult to get the inlay dead centered so the boundary is a consistent width all around, but depending on the inlay can produce a stunning affect this way. If this what you are doing, I suggest you insert the inlay, get it centered, tack it down with a little ca to keep it from floating around in the channel, then squeegee the epoxy filler in. You will need to use a slow set epoxy to allow air bubbles to excape, and it may take two or three passes to fill. I have tried to fill the channel with epoxy first, then insert the inlay. I had all sorts of trouble getting the inlay to stay centered in the over-sized channel.MichaelP38781.5632638889

Michael,
Thank you for your reply.

I see now that I messed up in my description, I should not have called it inlay. I cut a channel for an outline that I want to fill with a contrasting lighter color. Here is a picture of my rather poor first effort. I filled the channel with maple dust. It looked great. When I added the CA (cyanoacrylate) it turned way too dark. (I wish I could remember to try a test piece first!)
SteveS38781.8299884259

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

goy ya! If not cutting pearl or recon stone for this, I think my answer will be the same pigmented epoxyMichaelP38781.6933217593

Do you find pigmented epoxy commercially available in colors, and if so,
where. If not, what kind of epoxy do you start with and what do you use
to tint it?

Jay

I've never tried this, so it is just a suggestion. You could try "Inlace", a product that I have seen advertized and available from Grizzly. I believe it is available in a variety of different colors and textures. It might stand out a bit better. I kind of like the understated organic look you have now but can see where it might become almost invisible over time. Don A38781.7977199074

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

....allspruce38782.6654976852

Ron you lost me Steve was asking what material would provide a high contrast fill for a faux inlay. I think he is looking for something in a light earth tone to resemble a light wood like maple,in high contrast to the fretboard but as a pour type medium not a cut inlay. He is not trying to hide a miss cut inlay channel. What you said...I think is for a fill-in remedy not a contrasting fill medium.

ooo your right

sorry...

I agree with Don. I think "inlace" is what you need. I've done what you're doing with ebony dust and epoxy in cherry to do initials and it works very well. The inlace or powdered recon stone would work for you and it won't darken from finger oils over time like maple dust will.

Ron

_________________
OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I used ebony dust and CA. Thanks for your help!

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Looks good, Steve.

Ron

_________________
OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......