Official Luthiers Forum!

hi every one............i have never inlaid into flamed maole and although i will be trying to rout as well as possible ....i was wondering what medium if any could i use as a colourent for the epoxy to help make the finished inlay look better.....thanks for any help

joe

I just finished doing this myself and my best advice is to make perfect cavities...

i will do my meditation and be at one with the dremel lol

Maple is particularly unforgiving in this way. You cain't hide nuthin!
I use maple for bindings quite often & it took me ages to figure out how to get the but joints looking presentable. I quake at the thought of inlaying into it. If you get a rough edge, you can try to expand your outline to get an even line of adhesive around the edge of your inlay. If that doesn't work to your satisfaction, you can inlay your graphic into a smooth shaped piece of darker wood & then inlay that into your maple.
I would also seal the cavity to prevent glue bleeding into the maple.
Good luck! And please post a pic or two when you are done.

Some people like to use black or dark coloured epoxy which gives a contrasting outline to the inlay.

Don't drink coffee!

Ha! So True

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

What are you inlaying and where on the guitar. If it's a head stock or fretboard then perhaps you could make a Dupicator like Keith MacKenzie's and do it.

Well, not if you screw up , but if you scribe well, and deep enough with an exacto blade, the scribed line will cleanly peel away when you route against it, that is something that doesn't happen with ebony. Just scribe deep and clean, and yes take as much time as it needs, get the feel for it, route the outside line first, then go to the center.

Also, and this is where it is critical, use the thickest non-traveling glue possible when gluing the inlay into the cavity. I just had a nightmare of a time with some maple that literally drank in epoxy (thick stuff too) so it's all high risk.

Oh, and I love coffee, just not before maple..
Good luck.

Craig L

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www.handcraftinlay.com

thanks for all the replies guys..............its the back i am inlaying chris.........in the end i inlaid an ebony elipse and the inlaid the pearl into that............a nice safe option............i done some tests on scrap and even when i was carefull the pearl inlaid into bare maple looked real bad. it would take some real skill to inlay well into bare maple........

joe

In light colored woods the grain patterns and orientation makes concealing miss fitting channels nearly impossible. You need to have your parts fir true otherwise you ca see the patch or fill. It is easy enough to match base color but it is the cut edge of the channel that gives the miss fit away at a glace. Even if the color is matched perfect the cut edge will show because of the abrupt end of the grain and figure features.