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1) rub chalk into the lines

2) Clamp it into my Moxon vice to get it high enough for close work. The vice has enough play in the screws to clamp the tapered fretboard. I am using my Dremel with an .031" bit to route the spaces

3) Glue in the pieces with CA glue, then work in some ebony dust and set it with a bit of thin CA

1) Level the pearl and give it a shot with chalk and the radius block

2) Now a little strip of abalone down the edges and across the bottom, then an ebony binding on the outside

3) Having trouble trying to cut the tiny rabet for this little piece - .060 wide and .040 deep. Because of the radius in the board it won't work on a router table, and none of my combination planes will do anything this small.

Ed,
This might be where a gramil(?), the hand purfling cutter, could work. Those things work independently of the top curvature. A dremel could be used to clear the channel after a sufficient scoring cut was made.
-d.

Dan

Thought of the gramil, but the thing is so tiny - check out the next picture to see my solution

Ed

1) Thought about it for a while and took inspiration from the binding jigs we use. In place of a donut, I used a narrow overhang that bears on the edge of the fretboard - the light colored wood - along with a fence. Worked great

2) The problem was the radius of the board - there was no square corner to register on

3) I re-adjusted my fretboard binding gluing jig and will use it to hold the abalone in place for gluing

1) 2 layers of kitchen wrap, and I fit the pieces in. After a little fettling, I tap the wide end of the fretboard into the jig to hold the abalone tightly against the rabet

2) glue it up using CA glue

1) After way-too-much cleanup, looks pretty good. I have to work on that CA mess

2) Cut the fret slots through and ready for ebony binding

Sweet!! That board will be a looker. BTW, I really like your solution for cutting the rabbet -- seems foolproof.

ps: any tips on cutting thru the pearl?

Thans Dan

My initial worry was that cutting the regular .023 slot for frets through the pearl would cause the fret barbs to crack the pearl because it has no give or flex. After just opening up the pearl with the .023 saw,I think everything will be ok - it was very easy to saw.

I have cut a few pieces of pearl with a traditional jewelers saw with tiny-teeth blades and it cuts quite nicely

Ed

1) Glue the binding - one last hit with the radius block. Not sure how the center inlay on fret #9 ended up off center, but that mistake will show I am not perfect - along with the others

2) Very pretty

3) Miters look OK. Just a little drop fill and final sanding before fretting - now for the neck