Michael Smith wrote:
I'm rounding up supplies for my first build. I want to use abalone for the rosette and other decoration. I see the ablam on Stu Mac costs about $65. Ouch!! I find many more sources online for 75% less.
How thick should the ablam be?
I have a lot of abalone shells laying around from my diving days. I have cut them up many times on a wet saw to use in mosaic tile work but never tried slicing that thin.
How do you slice abalone shell that thin.?
I don't want to buy precut rosettes.
Although I generally don't recommend it because of the mess, I have ground abalone shell into blanks just using a drill press and a grinding wheel after cutting slices with a wet saw. The wheel was nothing special, I used the grinding wheel that came with my safety-planer. I put on a pair of gloves, squeeze the shell between the drill press bed and the wheel. A few passes to get flat sides and then the right thickness. A respirator is a must. A vacuum cleaner could help a lot with the dust.
Normally shells are ground wet underwater to control dust but I didn't want to play in water around my drill press.
You don't need very much shell for most rosettes, you can do this yourself. If I dove for the shells I would grind them and use them on a guitar.
John