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After working out how to inlay ammonites into ebony, I inlaid ammonite fret markers into the fretboard for the first time. It went a lot easier than I expected. Ammonites turn out to be a bit fragile but it's manageable and they sand nicely.

Routed and chiseled out the recesses for the ammonites.


Glued the binding on the end of the fretboard.


Glued binding to the sides of the fretboard. My setup for doing this step uses the router table for clamping the binding to the fretboard.


Completed 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

Like the logo on the headplate - looks good. Ammonite inlays are very cool!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That fretboard looks awesome!

I'm seeing an awful lot of curly woods in this challenge. I might need to step it up. I've been trying to use medulary rays as a theme in mine but that just can't compete. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I completed the neck today. The curl in the big leaf maple is pretty cool. It didn't want to be carved along the grain with a chisel so most of the shaping was done with a variety of rasps. I was worried that the bloodwood binding on the fretboard might be a problem from sanding dust getting into the maple, but it turned out to be no problem at all. Now I need to round over the body binding and do the final sanding of the body and then it's on to putting the finish on.

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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

Looks good. Great curl in that neck, it'll look great under finish.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looks great. Where did you get the maple for the neck?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I bought it on ebay from another guitar builder. It was a billet big enough to make two 12-fret necks like this.

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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

This weekend, I finished sanding the body to prep for finishing and got the first z-poxy pore filler application on.

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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

Jay, that looks great!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looking good. I can't believe how far along you are. You'all have time to make another.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Well, now that I'm entering the finish phase, things will slow to a snail's pace for a while.

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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

Looks great

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

That grains a poppin'! Nice work, Jay!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Just about as exciting as watching paint dry around here lately because that's where I am now. The finish is curing.

That got me thinking about my next guitar so I dug through my back and sides sets and hit on this ziricote set I got from zootman a while back. I like the intricate figuring in the middle of the plates a lot but not so much the plain sections toward the outside. It occurred to me that this set could be a nice fit for a parlor size guitar so I got out the piece of poster board left over from making the template for the guitar in this challenge thread and took a look. I like it.

Now it's on to choosing the other woods to go with it.

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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

Are those ammonites filled with something to make them flush with the board?

Ed

There's no fill. I inlaid them into the already radiused fretboard with them sitting just a hair proud on the centerline, then sanded them down to match the radius. They sanded nicely. Similar to sanding pearl.

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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

That zircote is crazy... I like it. What are you using on top of the z-poxy?

The z-poxy only went on the back, sides, body binding, and headplate. I used Target Coatings UltraSeal-WB Shellac Sealer and EM6000 gloss over the z-poxy. The shellac in the sealer gives it a bit of a tint which warmed up the look of the maple neck on this guitar nicely.

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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

Jay, that build is just awesome. MY son was asking if it would be possible to inlay some fossils and now I have something to show him. Nice!

That ziricote is also awesome. That figure reminds me of a canyon, I wonder if there's something that can be done to enhance the 3-D look of that back. Maybe it would be over the top tho. Nature usually does it best.

I've been wondering what other fossils might lend themselves to this too. Some fossilized corals look very cool and, depending what the workability is like, could make nice inlay material. Crinoids also look interesting.

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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 been looking at Malachite and Labradorite. Not sure how hard they are on tools though. I just have the Proxxon mini wet bandsaw with a diamond blade that I'd hate to have to replace. Really cool modern looking alternatives to shell but I have a feeling that there's a reason why many avoid using those materials. It's probably a PITA!!!!

I've seen malachite (green) used for inlay on rosettes and as part of a headstock inlay. In those cases, the malachite was ground fine in a mortar and pestle and used to fill the inlay recess and then flooded with CA. It sanded perfectly flat and smooth. Looked great.

I used crushed turquoise in the rosette and the headstock inlay for my first effort at an inlay on my first steel string guitar. For the rosette, I didn't grind the turquoise to a powder, I left it granular to give some larger texture (the rosette channel was sealed against CA leakage into the spruce). The headstock inlay had much smaller spaces to fill so I ground it pretty fine for that. In both cases, the ground turquoise was added to the routed recesses and flooded with CA. The turquoise leveled and sanded very nicely. The headstock inlay is a Northwest Native American design with two ravens' heads around the moon.

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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'm really enjoying the non-traditional materials.

Ed

DOH! I just noticed that I forgot to put in the side marker dots. The finish has been curing for two weeks now.

Guess I get to learn a new skill.

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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'm sure you will be fine. I have faith in you!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.