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I'm not Sheldon Cooper but I had some fun tonight putting this together...



The pieces are curly maple. I dyed them via vacuum so the dye goes all the way through each piece. I'm going to inlay it into the fretboard with the centre of the flag on the 12th fret.

Basically this is a bit of a show off thread. Feel free to add your own pictures of unique inlays you've done.

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Not my personal taste, but I love it!
You must be dead chuffed the dyeing process has come out really well.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Looks great! At first I thought the x was wrong because the red stripes didn't align. Looking online at pics, you have t exactly right! Surprised I never noticed that before. My son is a huge Beatles fan, I might have to try something like this myself once I have some more experience.

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Very cool, Rod!

Sweet, I love that! Nicely done.

Here is an inlay on one I am just finishing up for a worship leader. He requested this word for the inlay.

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It will probably be alright.

Nice work Rod! Opens up a lot of possibilities dying wood. How long a piece can you do?

Rod,
Thanks for the BBT reference... Brightened my day! Best sitcom since Cheers....

Nicely done!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Just make sure that you install it the right way up, it's amazing how often I see it being flown upside down when I go overseas, especially in the US. It's correct the way you have it in the photo, assuming it's a right handed guitar.



Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Yes, Colin. And the flag pole must ALWAYS be on the left side of the flag.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks Colin!! And nice to see you around.
While I'm confident I was going to inlay it the right way up I appreciate the reminder.

Alex, putting the Jack upside down would be akin to putting any countries flag upside down. It would be disrespectful.... But I'm sure you know this.

Thanks folks. We've been thinking of this inlay for quite some time.

This is going on a guitar that my 16 yr old nephew is building under my guidance at my shop. I'd say he is doing 60% of the work and leaving the hard stuff and dangerous tools to me.

Danny, my current vacuum chamber is a 1/2 gal pickle jar so I think I could get a piece about 8" in there by as wide as the opening. However making a PVC vacuum chamber from 4" dia round would make for some great potentials....thinking of bindings?? Some blue or red curly maple bindings would be amazing....

Greg, great job on that inlay! I like how you spanned the letters (looks perfect) between the frets. Good job!!


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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Thanks Rod. Customers often don't realize how difficult it can be to get a large word inlay to lay out so that the frets all fall between the letters! In this case, there was only one font size and one location on the fretboard where everything worked.

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It will probably be alright.

I'm just finishing a guitar with this one. This is the customers signature which was a treat to do.



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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Red necks down here would love it!
Even though it's not the confederate flag, red necks ain't too smart.

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

...... and it was our National flag until 1965!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

And is still on the flag of Hawaii.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Rod, I'd be very interested to learn more about the vacuum method that you're using.

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Rod, I have a vacuum system and I also would be very interested in hearing the details of your vacuum dye process. You are right, a PVC pipe would make a great chamber for purflings. Thanks, Bob

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“ The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away” Pablo Picasso

Dying wood in a vacuum is the same as stabilizing wood. Knife makers regularly do this.

I did a google search and found many examples of stabilizing wood.

Here's a good article on dying wood via vacuum http://finewoodtools.com/2015/02/to-dye ... n-chamber/

And here's the video I used to make my own vacuum chamber with the brake bleeder pump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx5BW-aAR1I

And as you can see, you can make the chamber from many objects, thus a PVC tube 36+" long would be a good idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtFaDDPuHFE

If you have a vacuum pump you'll have to watch for the bubbles as it can build fast if air is removed quickly.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson