Inlay Tools for VERY small details

[Rag Thumb]

I am doing a build for a friend who has asked me to inlay a '3 Hummingbirds" White and Gold MOP pattern for his fretboard and peg head. The beaks on these little suckers are tiny/small/miniscule!

I'm wondering what tool(s) would be best to tackle something like this.

[Rag Thumb]

Sam at DePaule indicated a chisel would be best to clear the area for the beak, but I haven't been able to find any tools that, to me, look like they could do the job. I have an exacto knife but in the past that has not done a great job of clearing ebony.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[Diane Kauffmds]

I do extensive inlay. The best I've been able to use is a .020" inlay bit. John Hall has them. The other alternative is to use a dental bit, but I don't like them much. After using the .020 router bit, I clear the point with a 1mm carving chisel. I have a set of micro chisels.
I'll find a link for you. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XSBZJCB/re ... mEb5H5ECYK

[Diane Kauffmds]

I have a set of Ramelson, but 3 broke awfully easily. I'm looking at this set, which has good reviews. I have found that using micro chisels helps a lot.

What kind of wood are you inlaying? If you have a choice, go with ebony.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GVJD9O2/re ... mEbE0AVGQJ

Here are a couple of my inlays. I'm going to redo the hummingbird vine. I don't like the colors on the flowers and leaves.

PicsArt_08-05-09.33.31.jpg

PicsArt_10-07-05.51.51.jpg

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PicsArt_12-03-09.25.41.jpg

[Diane Kauffmds]

Kind of pricey, but nice looking. I like the Japanese set more. I need a set too.

https://www.garrettwade.com/set-of-5-mi ... UPEALw_wcB]

[tippie53]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7gYBqLRdMo&t=774s
here is how I inlay
we do have this modified that you can use a dremel
also the inlay process is about knowing how to fill and work close.
learning to layout the design is the hardest thing to master.

hope this helps
I use a .020 bit for fine line out and 1/32 for most other inlay.

[Rag Thumb]

Thanks Diane and John.

The chisels look interesting, and as you say Diane, pricey in the case of the Garrett Wade set. I will give the Amazon chisel a try.

I am working with Ebony in this case, and I intend to blacken it further with India Ink I bought from SM. That is what they sell for that purpose. Does anyone have any experience it? From there I will fill and my intention is to use medium viscosity black CA also from SM.

I have some experience with the CA doing a rather ambitious

IMG_0580.jpg

Tree of Life fretboard for a friend. Close inspection would find there are several OOPS on it, but from afar it's not bad. The biggest issue I had with it was depth of the channel, especially in cases where the piece was quite wide. I in some case made it too deep and that necessitated a good bit of radius sanding at the end. Even with that I still ended up with some pearl being a bit shaded under some of the black CA. Supposedly this MOP on the hummingbirds is solid, so I am thinking I will leave the MOP a bit proud and file/sand it down to the level of the board.

IMG_0580.jpg

In the past I have glued the pieces in place and then scribed around them, followed by removal of the piece and then highlighting the scribe with a white chalk. Then I use an exacto knife to improve the scribe, followed by routing with a Dremel mounted into one of John's inlay tools. Any ideas on a better way to scribe?

Thanks again for replying to my post. Any and all advice and education is greatly appreciated.

[tippie53]

impressive

[Diane Kauffmds]

I put paper under the pearl to shim it where it goes too deep. I used to glue, scribe, then use chalk, to mark the boards. I still use a tiny bit of Duco, but I just use a thin mechanical pencil to outline.

[Rag Thumb]

I will try the pencil outline again. I had tried that before but I had trouble seeing the pencil lead. I do have a poor mans optivisor now so maybe that will help me out there. I think my lighting has improved also.

What solvent do you use to release the Duco?

By the way John, if you had the opportunity to view my work in person you would retract the "impressive" comment. I'm still proud of it though. I did that for our mutual friend who had that material for years and not done anything with it. He offered me the chance to try it and I took him up on it. I'm hoping he will build a guitar to put that fretboard on..