Repairing ( not replacing) worn frets

[Wayne Robinson]

Hi all, I am repairing a very old open back banjo and have a couple of frets that have bad wear in them. I don't want to replace the fret wire as I don't have the correct type or even anything similar. Is there anyway to repair the worn area other than levelling all the frets? I was thinking of applying solder to the area after heating it up with a soldering iron. What do you think??

Cheers

Wayne
New Zealand

[Michael Shaw]

Years ago i did fret jobs before i had real fret tools with a simple ball peen hammer, diagonal cutter and standard hardware store files like mill file for the leveling and triangle files and needle files for shaping.

[Antonio Cotichini]

I'm still running that way! No press. Plastic hammer, various files, sand papers and abrasive linens and... elbow grease. Still works fine!