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I got to finally use this today: https://shop.gryphonstrings.com/product ... iling-jig-

I have tried the SM nipper and the Summit nipper. Both would distort the ends of the wire on thin Uke / Mandolin wire. At least they did for me. Could be a technique thing though.

This jig and a Nicholson bastard file were nice. Every fret came out perfect. Once you learn how much fret to expose it goes pretty quickly. Not as fast as a nipper for sure, but the results were really impressive.

It looks like there might be a few left. If you don't have a nipper or use thin wire, I would recommend it.

Brad


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We have the LMII version which is used for very thin stainless steel wires (the Summit tang tool gets used for most things) The last few strokes of the file determine just how well the crown fits, and any radius on the wire requires a bit of finesse to get those final few strokes perfect...I found it easy to nick the underside of the crown if I was not paying attention.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Grab the fret tang with one of these...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Handle-Mini ... SwcBhWX75d

Make a little notch in your workbench, hold the fret with the end cutter where you want to end the "nip" and file away.
Have done it that way so long that the width of the end of the tool is a good 3/16" less wide than when new. Cheap, works and does not distort as long as the part of the fret you are filing fret sits in the notch.
Have done it on mandolins with .050" and even .040" wire for years.

I like that Haans, simple and works. I do much the same to wipe away any trace of tang after nipping them, just use a dedicated wooden block in a vice.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Me too, until I remembered having bought one of these off the Classifieds here. I fished it out of a workbench drawer the other day and gave it a go. Anyone want a set of nippers? I'll never use them again.

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George :-)

Got PLENTY thanks.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hey, Colin, sorry if my post looked to be critical of your approach. That wasn't my intent. I should have worded my comment more carefully. What I meant to share is that after using the Frank Ford-designed jig, I prefer it over my fret tang nippers.

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George :-)

Good grief George, I can see absolutely no hint of criticality in your post at all.
You just reminded me how many I have, they're falling off my shelves and spilling out of my fretwork toolbox.
Mainly less expensive ones as I did a Frank Ford and modified smaller ones for tang compression/expansion, but also in a search for decent fret end cutters.
I feel I must have been 50% of the U market for a while!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

No worries, then. Just wanted to make sure I hadn't offended you.

I have too many tools to keep track of at this point!

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George :-)

You do what now? What is the notch for? How many hands do you have? Somehow I am not visualizing what you described.


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File, cut, whatever, a little notch big enough for the fret to sit with only the tang sticking out from your block of wood, workbench (however you want to do it). Grasp the fret by the tang (the part that you will hammer into the fretboard) with the end nipper. Move the end nipper so the part of the tang you want to eliminate sticks out. Stick that fret area in the notch. File away the tang.
How many hands do you have? Only need two...

Ah, tang up in the notch. Somehow I was picturing the tang in the notch as in the Frank Ford jig and couldn't understand how that was going to work.