My first... Partial kit

[Michael Thoner]

And the other

[Michael Thoner]

That gets me caught up to date. Now on to setting the neck joint, and the end graft

[Michael Thoner]

End graft is done ready to install. That is Honduran opal in black epoxy, and Ethiopian opal with a ruby in the white epoxy. Just for the fun of it, I added a drop of glow in the dark paint to the white epoxy

[Michael Thoner]

Now that the neck is roughed in, time to fill some pores and start the fretboard inlays

[Michael Thoner]

I'll finish the dovetail after the French polish

[johnnparchem]

wow, amazing work. Great idea for the open sound hole cutaway.

[Michael Thoner]

End graft installed!

[Michael Thoner]

With a coat of epoxy for filling the pores

[Michael Thoner]

A closeup of the rosette

[Diane Kauffmds]

I've worked with opal for 20+ years now. Good Honduran is hard to find; you have some nice pieces there. your idea for the rosette and end graft are very interesting. I still work almost exclusively with Australian opal that I buy directly from a miner. I've thought of inlaying one of my guitars, using off cuts.

These aren't guitar inlays, but here are of some opals that I've cabbed. I've cabbed a few hundred, and since I never throw out opal, unless it's absolutely colorless, I have everything from chips to large rough laying around. LOL

opal banner for Etsy.jpg