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Well, this was not what I wanted. The headstock logo on the headplate I'm making cracked while the headplate was clamped to veneer layers for gluing. The headplate is made from offcuts from the back plates of this guitar so I want to use it. Before I rout out this inlay and make a new one. I'm wondering if there's a way to make the crack disappear. Maybe wicking in thin CA or something else? Since I hand cut these logos, it'll be a bit of a challenge to fit the existing recess closely. I guess I could make the whole inlay a hair larger and then enlarge the recess as needed. I would rather not have to do that though if the crack can be made invisible somehow.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

You might be able to work some white pigment stain (or baking soda?) into the crack and then hit it with CA to make it less conspicuous. Another possibility might be to engrave the shell to accent the mazama mountain theme working the crack into the design, and a third thing might be to remove a small section of the shell and inlay a contrasting piece in its place.

Jay,

You can make it less obvious, but not invisible. Looks like you're stuck with routing it out, which isn't as bad as it sounds, in my experience.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

The logo that I used on mandolins was so delicate that many were broken when they were hand cut by the supplier. As my instruments were "old time", I used them cracked anyway and many times pieced together parts from several logos. No one ever complained because of the delicacy and that old Gibsons were cracked too.



I can tell you that I was never able to repair a cracked inlay to invisibility. You will be a lot happier if you replace the inlay. A good practice is to never glue your inlay in until the peg-head veneer is glued to the neck.

Thanks all for the replies and suggestions.

Haans - That's a good suggestion about waiting to glue the inlay in. That's what I'll do in the future.

Clay - the fracture is very tight so I don't think I could get something even as fine as baking soda into it. The problem is refraction from some angles of light that make it very blatant, at least to me. I think the simplest thing would be to rout it out and do over. As an aside, it's interesting to me that you picked up on the mountain theme. I chose that particular "M" because it reminds me a bit of the Early Winters Spires in the North Cascades about 15 miles west of the town of Mazama. That group of peaks is one of my favorites and my wife and I climbed the left-most and right-most peaks in the photo below about fifteen years ago.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Lovely shot Jay, wish I could go back to the mountains one more time.
Something else you might consider is when routing out the cracked inlay, leave a bit of the inlay all around and take that out with a chisel or #11 blade. If you plow through the inlay trying to rout it out, you may be in for a big surprise as it will take out a fair amount of wood next to it, too.

Thanks for the tip on routing the inlay. I'll do that.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

An "off the wall" thought: what about cracking the inlay in a number of other places and having the result being an inset of multiple pieces rather than a single piece? If you intend to rout out the inlay anyhow, there's little to lose (unless the cracking damages the wood). After all, the Early Winters Spires are composed of multiple smaller rocks.

I like your suggestion but after some half-hearted attempts, because of not wanting to crack the wood, I couldn't add more cracks to the inlay. So, it's on to routing it out.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Wouldn't some heat soften the glue so you could pick it out? A soldering iron would do it

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

White magic marker or a wite out correction pen might fill and hide the crack. I like to try the simple fixes first. When attempting a repair a saying that comes to mind is - "the enemy of good is better"

I cracked the bird when I inlayed it on my Gibson B-25N in 71'. It was only a hairline crack then too. Been playing "Over the Broken Eagle" since.

It's expoxied in and I'm not sure how effective heating would be. I would also be worried about damaging the wood around the inlay when prying out the inlay.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I already tried wicking thin CA into the crack yesterday to see if that might change the refraction caused by the fracture. No luck and the crack is now filled with CA.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Having such a visible crack there in the most prominent inlay on the guitar would just bug me forever, so I have to fix it. I'm also planning on showing this guitar at the annual Northwest Handmade Musical Instrument Exhibit in April (assuming the organizers are successful in finding a new venue) so having a crack in the headstock logo is a no go for that reason too.

So, I have some routing on the schedule for this afternoon...

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Routing will work fine I'm sure, but typical epoxy has the lowest melting temperature of any glue I've ever used. By "typical" I mean West System, Smith, etc. An exception is JB Weld, which seems to be a high-heat formulation. If you try the heat approach, just take it slow so as not to overheat the wood.

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

Well I routed out the inlay. It worked fine thanks to Haans' tip to leave a bit of inlay all the way around when routing. The one spot where I went through the edge of the pearl, the router wanted to take off into the wood but I was ready for it so no harm done. The remaining thin band of pearl along the edges came of easily with a fine chisel. Now it's on to cutting a new inlay.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Ok, this is better. It's not glued in yet, I'll wait until after the headplate is glued onto the headstock this time. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Nice one Jay!

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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.

Glad it all worked out for you Jay...

Looks like you were able to cut an inlay to fit in the routed recess. Looks good.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com