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I've been practicing for several months on scrap wood, and two project guitars. I feel I'm ready to start my OM. The build will be Peruvian Walnut sides and back, with a Carpathian spruce top. I bought some of the materials, and John Hall, from Blues Creek Guitars, assembled the custom kit and was gracious enough to bend the sides for me.

I may be doing the different steps slightly out of order. I prefer to work on my front porch, and with winter coming, I have limited time to finish the "messy" stuff. So, I'm starting with the inlay and fretboard. Although the fretboard was radiused to 16", I'm more comfortable with 15".

I centered the board on the neck with a couple of dots of Ducoat cement, then radiused it to 15". After radiusing the board, I leveled it; the fingerboard extension is tad lower than the rest of the fretboard (it barely shows light under it), but I figure that it gives me a bit of leeway when the neck is installed. I drew a center line down the board.

In the first photo, you'll see the fretboard all lined out with the inlay glued on the board, with small dots of Ducoat, which releases better than CA glue for me. I etched around the inlay with a #11 X-Acto knife, then used chalk to work into the etching. I used my Dremel with the Stew-Mac routing base for the inlay. To make the corners sharper for the inlay, I chiseled the corners with my 1/8" chisel.

There is one tiny little hole that I have to fill, but otherwise the inlay is complete.

One of the decisions that I had to make is whether to put a back strip on the back. I bought a piece of curly maple, with the intention of installing the strip, then I sanded the wood a little. Not only does the wood have a beautiful pattern, it also has an iridescent waterfall (?) chatoyance that my camera didn't pick up. I decided to let the wood stand alone. I joined the back 2 days ago; it's sanded to 600 grit on both sides.

The peghed came with rosewood veneer. Using my old no longer used, but trusty Rowenta iron, I heated it and easily removed the veneer. I replaced it with Peruvian Walnut. I also drilled holes for the tuners; I used the drill press for the first time, which made me as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs (LOL).

I decided on this rose inlay for the headstock. With the tuner bushings temporarily in place (and a center line drawn on the headstock), I temp. glued the inlay with Ducoat, etched around it. I'm hoping to get this inlay routed tomorrow, depending on the weather:

Looks good! Nice inlays.

Nothing short of impressive....

You are doing nice work Diane. Keep a going!

looking really good! I rarely use back strips, letting the wood stand alone.

I just got done routing the headstock for the inlay. Here is the photo of the inlay; it's just set into place without glue or fill (which it will need in a couple of places), so you can see all the boogers. I always keep a container of sawdust from the wood that I'm working on to fill.

Beautiful work Diane!

Diane

What is your woodworking experience? Your design decisions are good and you are doing a very nice job.

Ed