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Here is the latest Luthier Tips du Jour video. - The topic is the LMI Fret Tang Filer.
This video as well as all my other videos are available via my website, https://lutherieacademy.com/videos , LMI's website or on Youtube.
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Like you Robbie
Been using this for years best tool for doing bound fret boards

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

That's the first I've heard of cutting back the tangs for frets on an unbound fretboard.

Robbie - Were the ends of the tangs of the original frets visible on that guitar? If so, filing back the ends of the tangs of the new frets would leave them recessed. Did you do something to fill in the recesses on the edge of the fretboard?

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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've done that on an unbound fretboard, filled the recesses with ebony dust and CA glue.

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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.

I've done that on banjos for years. It does leave a nice fretboard edge. I always used a black shellac burn-in stick to fill the remainder of the slot.

Dave

Wow that really does do a good job indeed. I made my own nipper from one of those sheet metal nipping tools. It does require filing in most cases though but sometimes I get a nice flush cut with it.

Personally, I like seeing the fret tangs on an unbound board.

I've been using the old style SM fret tang nipper for years and it's still going strong. A little care in setting the fret into the nipper results in a flush cut with no file required. I also do the CA fill for unbound fretboards. This reduces the potential for sprouting fret ends if the fretboard shrinks a little.

I’ve been using this. Happy with it.

https://www.jescarguitar.com/shop/summi ... universal/

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I have two sets of StewMac's fret nippers, so I'm trying to get all the mileage I can out of them…

I bought this little device that works wonders for holding the fret down while filing what little is left with the SM nipper. Works great. You can even screw it down somewhere on your bench if you prefer not to use it in a vise.

https://guitarsandwoods.com/fret-tang-filer.html

Off-topic, but here's about Guitars and Woods.

Those guys in Portugal have great tools, prices are on the lower side (often much lower, check their aluminum radius beams) ship fast for reasonable amounts of money and have great service, too. They're kind of like Europe's StewMac and I've been buying from them for years and have them ship to Quebec without any trouble. Open a commercial account from outside EU and you'll be getting prices devoid of sales tax… that's 20% off.

Hope you’ll find this useful.


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Same here. They have plates to accommodate different crown sizes. This is the only cutting tool I found that didn’t mangle uke wire.

Frank fords filer, and I’m sure the LMI filer, also work fine on uke wire.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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