Learning To Inlay

[tdibell]

I would like to start the long process of learning the fine art of inlay and engraving. I had some inlay work done by Larry Robinson and ever since I have dreamed of doing some of my own. The work itself though calls for a steady hand. Does anyone have ideas, or have any of you attempted this on your own?

[Rick Hoey]

I have done some basic inlay work mostly simple letters and shapes. Cutting the material is the tough part. Inlaying into the wood is the fun part. Stewmac sell videos by Larry Robinson,you couldn't find a better introduction. It's the kind of thing you need to do all the time to get good and fast.

[Fabio Pollero]

I've had a few spot inlay works using my Dremel Moto Tool and the router base supplied by StewMac you might want to utilize for routing binding channels too. This is IMHO the safer and most precise approach to that work and the tool itself can be used for other jobs too...
Fabio

[Donald A. Fortune]

Hi tdibell, I tryed my hand at inlay a couple of times, and I found the cheepest way to get going is to buy a piece of clear pine (NO KNOTS) and see if you can mouch some drops of laminate material from a counter top shop that does laminated tops-- NOW-- there are two types of laminate-- counter top grade which is about 1/16 thick and whats known as vertical grade
1/32 tghick-- see if you can get the 1/32 thick because its easier to work with.
Go to Stewart MacDonald and they have saws and tools to do inlay work....(good stuff)
they also have books on how to do what you want to do...
hope this info helps and best to you in your new adventure----
Donald

[Jerry Mercer]

Another source of information about inlay and many luthier topics is a video rental site that is similar to Netflix...this one is called Smartflix. You simply sign up, go through their site and find luthier section. There are numerous topics including inlay and complete guitarmaking course to you name it. The site is smartflix.com or just google smartflix.

Jerry