John's Fretboard Inlay Technique Questions

[Darryl Young]

I hope to inlay an African blackwood fretboard this weekend. I wondered if I could use the same CA/accelerator/black magic marker technique that John uses in his Youtube video on the blackwood? Would it still look good or is blackwood not homogenous enough to pull it off?

Alsoa queston about the technique. When applying the black magic marker, John does it hurt or help anything if the magic marker is scribbled on the sides of the inlay as well as the top?

[tippie53]

I just hit the top. The purpose is to get the black into the CA. I would try a piece of scrap first. One never knows how the CA will affect the wood. If the CA won't work you can use Med CA it won't soak in as fast

[Darryl Young]

Started the inlay yesterday and finished up tonight. It went fairly well. Certainly can improve but I'm happy with the results for my first attempt at inlaying a fretboard.

The CA and black marker trick worked ok but not as well as it does on ebony. However, after oiling the fretboard, it's basically invisible.

So what do you guys use to oil the fretboard? I just used heavy mineral oil and it was way thicker than I expected. I'm guessing several options would work better.

[Darryl Young]

BTW, I had planned to use the Maltese Cross Squares & Diamonds long pattern. Had I known at the time I ordered, I would have ordered this from David Nichols as he likely cut the originals for Martin. But I discussed this with Andy Depaule and he didn't have the set but he thought it was similar to the Uke K-5 set and replace the small inlays at the 5th and 9th frets with Martin diamonds. So that is what I ordered but when my daughter and I looked at it last night, we decided to go with the standard inlays in the Uke K-5 set. The Martin diamonds seemed a little too large to match the original Maltese pattern.

[tippie53]

post some pics we wanna see

[Ben-Had]

So what do you guys use to oil the fretboard? I just used heavy mineral oil and it was way thicker than I expected. I'm guessing several options would work better.

I use mineral oil and have for over 40 years (way before I started building). Mineral oil is the base for a lot of the others any way and a whole lot cheaper. For me the key is light application. I put a drop on my finger and spread it over the whole board, let it sit for a couple minutes and wipe the board down with a clean white cotton rag (my old t's), let it sit a couple more and wipe once again.

[Darryl Young]

I definitely added too much MO so you are probably correct. It looked good this morning.

Here are a couple of pictures that give you an idea what it looks like. It's difficult to take pictures of inlay and see the whole pattern. Note: fretboard is just laying on neck (not glued in place). After I had everything inlaid, I looked at the 12th fret inlay and wondered if the outside cat eyes should have been moved close to the center inlay.

IMG_1004.jpg

IMG_1005.jpg

[darren]

looks good from here :)

[watergunn]

Question for John:

Would black CA work instead of using the black marker technique? Just wondering.

[tippie53]

No
the black CA puts a dark halo around the pearl that is more obvious than this method