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Hi folks, just finished gluing up the fret board onto my neck for my second guitar, a bound ziricote number. I made myself a fret tang nipper out of a klein sheet metal nibbler and went through filing off the little remnant of the tang on the ends. Before I bound the thing I went through and over cut the slots at the ends so I wouldn't bottom out once I radiused the fret board. The trouble came when I over-filed some of them a little and now that they're seated I have a tiny little gap right under the ends that I can see daylight through. More troubling than that is that they have created little razor edges just above the fret board and I'm looking for a) what went wrong and b) where to go from here. I'm guessing now that it would have been better for me to leave a bit of the tang rather than over file the over lap, because at least I wouldn't have negative material there. I think what's causing me trouble is even when I put a clamp on the ends, the majority of the fret is seated properly against the wood so the end just springs back up rather than deform in that last 1/8" to get closer to the ziricote. I'm thinking of going in with some thicker CA glue where it's sticking up and then clamping these parts, letting it dry and just treating it like a normal fret after that's all done.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I would suggest replacing the frets that you overfiled. You know what you did wrong so you should be able to avoid it on the redo

...and this is why bound fretboards are lame- sure they look purty, but they are totally impractical, and in the end, make no better music than regular fretboards do....

yeah Nyazzip, it was a total PITA doing it and I'm not sure it was that worth it. It was enough of them that I wasn't too keen on pulling the ones that were up a bit high. I realized that if I'm going to do anymore like this I really need to get some better task lighting in my work area and take my time a bit more. I ended up going at them with a light steel head hammer, which I know is not the tool to use on frets but I used a light touch and improved things quite a bit. They're still well within the range of being leveled and recrowned so I think it'll all work out. I'm going to mask things off and wick in a bit of CA glue near the ends just to close things up a bit.

Really?

It's easier to finish the neck (for me at least), it eliminates the possibility of protruding fret ends, and allows me to dress the ends nice easier than I can with non-bound fretbards, plus looks way cool and allows extra design features.

I don't see how they're impractical, either.

I much more enjoy refretting bound fretboards as well.

Just a little more practice.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

When it comes to a re fret I charge less for a bound board as its easier. I think that goes for new construction as well. If you can clamp the ends down you can wick some ca under them.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Thanks for the replies guys, this is exactly what I needed.

Fillipo, don't worry a bit your take was dead on. This is my first one and there were "bound" to be ways I would mess it up.

Todd, thank you so much for that detailed reply. When I was placing the frets I had no idea how far in I should trim off the tang, and I may have overcut a few. I didn't even think of bending the tang-less portion a little beyond the curvature, but I bet that would have helped quite a bit. It really seems to be a situation where as the rest of the fret conformed to the radius of the fret board, the ends just want to continue at the same tangency as the last part that had a tang, and was very stubbornly holding position there. I'm going to re-read this later when I've actually woken up and assess whether to go back and redo the worst offenders.

Thanks again guys, this is a wealth of information!

I trim the tang exactly to the width of the slot and dress the underside with a file, then trim the tang at an angle right on the end.
I overbend slightly and use an 8 ounce brass hammer to lightly tap back and forth across the fret until it's fully seated, I personally get better results with that than with a dead blow, although I prepare my slots better now than I did 15 years ago when I bought the brass hammer so that I don't think it matters what hammer I use now.
I use superglue, the one with the brush to brush the tang first, I don't like the moisture that the hide or titebond introduces.
After the glue dries, almost instantly, I tap the fret ends down slightly, just enough, taking advantage of the malleability factor of the metal to ensure the end is aimed down with tension and won't ever spring back up. If you do it right the tension extends across the fret a little and it won't be trying to pull up.
This way I'm not relying on the glue to hold down the fret ends, but rather to take up the extra space in the slot and seat the fret more solidly.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Exactly what I was thinking

I will do that Todd, thanks for reminding me about Jeff. Looks like he knows what he's doing!