On the F5 I built in 2006 I had an inlay fashioned for me in Vietnam (I bought it on ebay) and had intended to use another of the same design on the F4 ... I had in fact sent Roger the already inlaid ebony overlay for the headstock prior to the camp thinking he could just glue that on before shaping the headstock. Roger and I exchanged a couple of emails and decided that since this particular inlay was etched, there was a better than even chance some of the etching would be lost when sanding down the headstock in the finishing process ... I'm not sure how I managed to avoid that on the F5 but agreed I didn't want to risk it on the F4 built at camp so I purchased another inlay not already 'inlaid' in ebony from Andy DePaule at Luthier Supply and would then do the inlay at home after camp.
The great thing about inlay in ebony is that it's fairly easy to blacken the glue (epoxy or even elmers) one uses to stick the ornament into the cavity and fill any 'gaps' caused by in-exact routing ... a VERY GOOD THING for me !!
So ... here's the simple "Yellow Rose" I chose as the headstock ornament for the F4 ...
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| From Lutherie |
I traced the outline onto the headstock ...
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I in-expertly scribed the line to mark where to carve/route ...
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I hacked at it with a scalpel, a chisel, a machete, a broad axe, a pick axe, a bit of nitroglycerin ...
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| From Lutherie |
Then I used my dremmel ...
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| From Lutherie |
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I mixed up some "please forgive my lack of skill!" epoxy with some ebony dust ...
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| From Lutherie |
I said a short prayer, waved an enchanted rabbit's foot over the piece as I gently laid it into the glue filled cavity ... and clamped it flat (but not too tight ... didn't want to break the pearl/abalone) ... and left it overnight ...
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| From Lutherie |
... and after a bit of sanding to remove the excess glue ... by the grace of the rabbit's foot and "ebony that allows even club handed miscreants to look skilled ..." ... I revealed The Yellow Rose Of Texas ...
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| From Lutherie |
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It's not "perfect" and I will do better next time .. but I'm satisfied for now ...
