Official Luthiers Forum!

i was at a "world market" yesterday doing last minute christmas shopping and i saw a couple of vases (for DRIED flowers) made of what appeared to be genuine horn of some sort, cattle i assume....it was a blend of black/white/silvery/tannish, to nearly white in areas. just wondering if it is suitable inlay material for the fretboard face? looks like it polishes up pretty nice

thats kinda what i'm worried about....too soft, for the fretboard...? it would be either rosewood or ebony.

Most of your dots are between strings 3 and 4 in the centerline, and don't get much string wear unless your bending strings. You can make the inlays lower than the wood, and fill with CA glue that will give them more life. You always can refill with wear and sand down. Most of your dots are shell that are not that hard at all. Go for it.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

i've never messed with horn. mess with the bull, get the horns. shell seems pretty hard, harder than most woods for sure. maybe i'll try it. i do bend a lot though. jimmy page, and then later in life, old country, were/are major influences for me. i like the idea of setting them deep then flooding them though, thanks
just thoughts at this point. prefab dots are the extent of my inlay work thus far

If you can cut it, then you can inlay it. If you are just making dots then I dot see them getting a lot of wear but if doing something larger then there may be a wear factor. Interesting idea though and best of luck.

I see no reason why you shouldn't try it, but remember that most horn is about as durable as your own fingernails. Ergo, no heavy wear applications. And I think I'd try to design small inlays, too. That would allow the fingerboard wood to take most of the abuse because smaller inlays wouldn't have too much surface area. (That last statement makes perfect sense to me, so I hope it makes sense to you, too.)

i'm thinking its probably too soft. at least cow or whatever this was. deer antler seems pretty hard; not sure what the diff is between antler and horn, if any.
makes sense. the fretboard area near the frets doesn't get any wear either, where the string remains elevated, compared to the area in the middle of the span, where the string (can)grinds against it...