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Hello all, i just sanded down my headstock inlay which is a white pearl gibson style fluer de lys in a ebony veneer glued with epoxy mixed with dust, the problem is the glue is more of a grey colour than a black , and due to my less than perfect routing it shows up pretty bad, i know i'm not gonna get a perfect match but it could be a lot better.The only way out of this i can think of is to try using some kind of dye to paint round the inlay and seal over the top prior to finishing (i was planning on using tru oil) has anyone else tried this or any other method to get round this problem? Any help would be appreciated.Thanks all Rob

Hey Roby;
The finish will darken the epoxy some. It might even be enough. Give the peghead a wipe with naptha or mineral spirits & you'll get a good idea of what it'll look like under finish.
If it's still too pale, you could scrape off the top layer of Epoxy (while trying not to scratch your inlay) & add some more blackened epoxy. A stiff needle or the tip of an Xacto blade will work.
Powdered Tempra paint works well to make epoxy really black. I have even scraped powder off of my kid's watercolour set to colour epoxy & it works great.
Since you are working on a black ebony background, you should be able to disappear the "defects".

Thanks Daniel, seems like a good idea,just use more dust to make the epoxy darker.Rob.

I use a different method than the epoxy. You need CA accelerator and a black sharpie. Once you have the pearl set ,you use the sharpie and paint the pearl black , and when it dries use the accelerator on it. This lets the lamp black but takes out the medium. I then srop on the CA . This takes the color off the sharpie. I don't mix in dust as this often lest more of a halo . I apply 2 coats of the CA and use Accelerator. When it dries I flush sand and polish. The CA picks the color up and does a great job of filling. It make setting in pearl less messy than epoxy.
Dave Nichols of custom pearl inlay taught me this trick and I have been using it ever since
john hall

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I don't need to fill around inlay anymore, but on repairs on ebony pieces I've found that it's all about how hard and densely you can pack in the dust. Pack in super-fine ebony dust around and above a hole or chip so hard that it looks solid, and then add CA a bit at a time in the tiniest increments you can until it's a solid mass, then sand flush. If the grain of the ebony is obscured, this technique can make repairs and fills so clean that a pro can't find them.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Try darkening the fill with a fine tip Sharpie and then spray a little vinyl sealer or finish material over the inlay. A trick I learned in my other hobby is to apply a small drop of thin CA, put a small puddle of CA on a piece of wax paper and pick up small drops with a sewing needle with the tip of the thread eye ground off to make a tiny fork. I have several sizes of these made up, the smaller the fork the smaller the drop. The CA can sit on the wax paper for a long time and still be usable.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
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John, could you try explaining this again? I can't for the life of me figure it out, but I bet that when I do, it's a great tip!

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Thanks for all the replies everyone,some good tips,now just got to decide between them.I,ll let you know how i get on.Thanks again all. Rob

I'm with Snidermike, ?

I aways blacken the outside edges of a inlay with black sharpie. I too do like Bob with packing ebony dust into the gaps but I also make a mound of dust too because sometimes the CA will leave little air bubbles on top and the mound seems to aliminate that when sanded flush. I'd get a dental pick and remove the epoxy enough to do a dust fill with CA. You could also try and dye some baking soda black and when it dries then pack it into the gap and put a drop of CA on it and it's a instance fill as the soda acts as an accelerator. You can dye baking soda any color you need and use it to fill anything. Myself I don't like to use accelerator unless I have to on inlays as I find sometimes it leaves white spots if too much is used, I think it might be air bubbles. The blacken side of the inlay and CA will usually be all that is needed to fill small gaps and creates a line to the eye as the CA will let the black come through. If I have two pieces of inlay side by side and want them to be defined then I'll blacken the edges and if I want it to blend or be a soft line I won't blacken. The blacken edge trick was taught to me from Amy Hopkins who learned it from Dave Nichols. I really wouldn't use epoxy to glue inlays, to me it's just so much harder and a mess to use. I'd save the epoxy for special situations. If CA is good enough for Larry Robinson and Dave Nichols and Amy Hopkins , well that's good enough for me.
Oh yeah, the dyed baking soda trick was from Dan Erlewine in last months StewMac Trade Secrets. If you aren't signed up to get them then I'd suggest going to StewMac's site and signing up for them. They are pretty good tips to know.

Fixed, scraped out the epoxy, packed with ebony dust and dropped on CA, worked great. Another question, the grain on my headstock veneer is pretty noticeable do i need to fill, if so will pumice and shellac work on ebony? Thanks for taking the time to help everyone.Rob.

What do you mean by fix the grain? Can you post a picture?

I meant fill the grain.If i can figure out how to post a picture i wll. Rob

I know the problem is fixed now and I am not saying that this 'was' the case but for the reference of others your problem may have been that you sanded white shell into the surrounding epoxy. This can happen if you go at it too early or if the mix is a little soft due to too much hardener. Also I like to use a good sharp scraper when cleaning up inlay. I also like to use a file to get nice clean wood dust as dust picked up after sanding is usually contaminated with a little of the abrasive grit.

The best tip of all of course is to be careful when setting out the rout to scribe close around the shell with a 'fine' slender point and then rout to the line. Get this right and you are left with very little to fill, this is especially important when working with anything but the darkest woods.

Cheers

Kim