Official Luthiers Forum!

I just finished inlaying my first steel string with abalam as part of
the binding/purfling and was wondering how I could best get it
flush with the top of the guitar. I'd guess with a scraper, but I
thought I'd run this past the vast field of experts out there!

Greg

   I use 220 grit sandpaper. Scraping will chip the snot out of the abalm. Once you get it level hit the whole top with 320 and 420 then the finish will pop the color up out of the pearl very nicely. Any voiding can be filled after the sealer coat with CA or droping lacquer

Also, glue your sandpaper to a flat surface, I use 5/8 baltic birch plywood and 3m spray adhesive and I use 120 grit paper from the rolls I have for my thickness sander (same as belt sander belts), then progress down in the grits after all is level. Having it glued onto a flat surface ensures that all areas are sanded evenly, not allowing the sandpaper to eat away at the much softer topwood before the rosette is level.

Shane

_________________
Canada

May I suggest the sanding blocks. I use the ones that you can replace the paper on. They are hand friendly and do a great job. Never use paper by hand .
   If I had to glue sandpaper to blocks I would never get any work done.

To each his own, that's the neatest thing about woodworking. We do agree, back your paper.

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Canada

Thanks Shane and Tippie! You saved me one big disaster!
Sandpaper on sanding blocks it IS!

Greg

Greg,

One more thing, abalam has a very thin 'finished surface'. Try not to sand through to the various laminations. I know that you have it installed already but as you sand just be conscious that the top layer is quite thin.

Good luck.

Shane

_________________
Canada

    Good point Some abalam has more finish than others. I find most of the .060 has about .030 . Even with sanding though at spots it will be hard to detect. The pearl flash can hide alot and under lacquer the lower layers look good. I have done it as most of us inlayer did at one point or another.
john

I once used ablam as inlay on a fretboard. When I sanded to match the radius of the FB it got weird looking quick. The stuff is pretty good for Rosettes and purfling but not very good for curved surfaces. I don't use it at all anymore.