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Hello all. For my current build, I decided that I'd like to try one of the Coumpound Radius fingerboards from Stewmac. Coumpound radius means that the fretboard starts with a 10" radius, but gradually tapers to a 14.5" radius to better match the way that the strings lay over the fretboard. I do have a little confusion though. Normally when you inlay a fretboard, you sand the inlays down flush with a radiused sanding block. I dont have that option here because the fretboard is compound. What are your reccomendations for the inlay installation/sanding down the inlays in this situation (I would prefer to avoiud buyng every radiused sanding block between 10" and 14.5")? Thanks in advance for your help! -Alex

Here is the fretboard that Im using http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bodies,_nec ... named=true

If I did not have the appropriate radius blocks, I'd try to inlay them as close to flush as possible, then use either a scraper(if one will work with pearl. I have no idea as I've never tried it), or use a small file to file the inlay flush with the radius of the board, and finish up with some hand sanding.
That's just what I would try. I'm sure there are better ways. Maybe someone else here who knows will post.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

I think Mike's got it. Scrapers work great on pearl, especially because they don't fluff the dust into the air like sanding does. Dulls pretty quickly, but since you'll probably only be using a small portion of the blade at a time, you can cycle across the width (and both sides) of the edge to get a lot of material removed between resharpenings

Thanks for the advice, what type of scraper do you reccomend (are you talking about cabinet scrapers?)

This kind is what i would use.
http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Scrapers&NameProdHeader=Handscrapers

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Yep, just a plain old rectangular cabinet scraper. I bought a set at Woodcraft, but I pretty much only ever use the rectangle (with corners rounded over so they don't leave scratches when smoothing wood, or poke into my hands uncomfortably). Just buy the individual 0.8mm from LMI and you should be good to go Oh, and a burnisher to sharpen it.

Done it many times over the years. A flat sanding block with 100 grit to start always worked best for me. Shell is so much harder than wood that scraping may give you a ripple where wood meets shell. This happens when you let your sandpaper get dull also.
Hope that helps,have fun.

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How long is that in luthyears?